I 


p-  '  'W 

t 


EDWARD  A.  STEINER. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


GIFT  OF 

Mary  Leete  Matlack 


ON  THE  TRAIL 

OF 

THE  IMMIGRANT 


EDWARD  A.  STEINER 
The  Broken  Wall 

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From  stereograph  copyright — 190fl}  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 
AT  THE  GATE 

With  tickets  fastened  to  coats  and  dresses,  the  immigrants  pass  out  through 
the  gate  to  enter  into  their  new  inheritance,  and  become  our  fellow  citizens. 


ON    THE   TRAIL 

OF 

THE  IMMIGRANT 


EDWARD  A.  STEINER 

Professor  in  Iowa  College,  Grinnell,  Iowa 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK    CHICAGO   TORONTO 

Fleming  H.   Revell  Company 

LONDON       AND       EDINBURGH 


Copyright,  1906,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


BEP.  GEN.  LIB. 
ACCESS.  NO. 

i* 

New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  125  No.  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:  100  Princes  Street 


This  book  is  affectionately  dedicated  to 

"  The  Man  at  the  Gate," 

ROBERT  WATCHORN, 

United  States  Commissioner  of  Immigration 

at  the 
Port  of  New  York: 

Who,  in  the  exercise  of  his  office  has  been 
loyal  to  the  interests  of  his  country,  and 
has  dealt  humanely,  justly  and  without 
prejudice,  with  men  of  "  Every  kindred 
and  tongue  and  people  and  nation" 


M834239 


A  CKNO  WLED  GMENT 

Cordial  recognition  is  tendered  to  the  editors  of 
The  Outlook  for  their  courtesy  in  permitting  the 
use  of  certain  portions  of  this  book  which  have 
already  appeared  in  that  journal. 


CONTENTS 

I.  BY  WAY  OF  INTRODUCTION       ...        9 

II.  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  TRAIL          .        .      16 

III.  THE  FELLOWSHIP  OF  THE  STEERAGE          .      30 

IV.  LAND,  Ho ! 48 

V.  AT  THE  GATEWAY 64 

VI.  "  THE  MAN  AT  THE  GATE  "     ...       78 

VII.  THE  GERMAN  IN  AMERICA        .        .        .94 

VIII.  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  IMMIGRANT        .        .112 

IX.  THE  JEW  IN  His  OLD  WORLD  HOME         .     126 

X.  THE  NEW  EXODUS  .        .        .        .143 

XI.  IN  THE  GHETTOS  OF  NEW  YORK        .        .154 

XII.  THE  SLAVS  AT  HOME       .        .        .        .179 

XIII.  THE  SLAVIC  INVASION      .        .        .        .198 

XIV.  DRIFTING  WITH  THE  "  HUNKIES  "     .        .     213 

XV.  THE  BOHEMIAN  IMMIGRANT       .        .        .225 

XVI.  LITTLE  HUNGARY 238 

XVII.  THE  ITALIAN  AT  HOME    .        .        .        .252 

XVIII.  THE  ITALIAN  IN  AMERICA         .        .        .262 

XIX.  WHERE  GREEK  MEETS  GREEK          .        .282 

XX.  THE  NEW  AMERICAN  AND  THE  NEW  PROB- 

LEM     292 

XXI.  THE  NEW  AMERICAN  AND  OLD  PROBLEMS  .     309 

XXII.  RELIGION  AND  POLITICS    .        .        .        .321 

XXIII.  BIRDS  OF  PASSAGE 334 

XXIV.  IN  THE  SECOND  CABIN     ....     347 

XXV.  Au  REVOIR 359 

APPENDIX 365 

INDEX 371 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing  page 

AT  THE  GATE Title 

As  SEEN  BY  MY  LADY  OF  THE  FIRST  CABIN    .        .      10 
THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  TRAIL       ....      26 

WILL  THEY  LET  ME  IN  ? 50 

THE  SHEEP  AND  THE  GOATS          ....      66 

BACK  TO  THE  FATHERLAND 92 

FAREWELL  TO  HOME  AND  FRIENDS          .        .        .114 

ISRAELITES  INDEED 140 

THE  GHETTO  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD         .        .        .156 
FROM  THE  BLACK  MOUNTAIN          .        .        .        .180 

WITHOUT  THE  PALE 208 

Ho  FOR  THE  PRAIRIE  ! 246 

THE  Boss 270 

IN  AN  EVENING  SCHOOL,  NEW  YORK      .        .        .    294 

A  SLAV  OF  THE  BALKANS 302 

ON  THE  DAY  OF  ATONEMENT         ....    330 


ON  THE    TRAIL    OF 
THE    IMMIGRANT 

i 

BY  WAY  OF  INTRODUCTION 

My  Dear  Lady  of  the  First  Cabin  : 

ON  the  fourth  morning  out  from  Ham- 
burg, after  your  maid  had  disentangled  you  from 
your  soft  wrappings  of  steamer  rugs,  and  leaning 
upon  her  arm,  you  paced  the  deck  for  the  first 
time,  the  sun  smiled  softly  upon  the  smooth  sea, 
and  its  broken  reflections  came  back  hot  upon 
your  pale  cheeks.  Then  your  gentle  eyes  wan- 
dered from  the  illimitable  sea  back  to  the  steamer 
which  carried  you.  You  saw  the  four  funnels  out 
of  which  came  pouring  clouds  of  smoke  trail- 
ing behind  the  ship  in  picturesque  tracery  ;  you 
watched  the  encircling  gulls  which  had  been 
your  fellow  travellers  ever  since  we  left  the  white 
cliffs  of  Albion ;  and  then  your  eyes  rested  upon 
those  mighty  Teutons  who  stood  on  the  bridge, 
and  whose  blue  eyes  searched  the  sea  for  danger, 
or  rested  upon  the  compass  for  direction. 

From  below  came  the  sweet  notes  of  music, 
gentle  and  wooing,  one  of  the  many  ways  in 
which  the  steamship  company  tried  to  make  life 

9 


io    ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

pleasant  for  you,  to  bring  back  your  "  Bon  appe- 
tit "  to  its  tempting  tables.  Then  suddenly,  you 
stood  transfixed,  looking  below  you  upon  the 
deck  from  which  came  rather  pronounced  odours 
and  confused  noises.  The  notes  of  a  jerky  har- 
monica harshly  struck  your  ears  attuned  to  sym- 
phonies ;  and  the  song  which  accompanied  it 
was  gutteral  and  unmusical. 

The  deck  which  you  saw,  was  crowded  by  hu- 
man beings  ;  men,  women  and  children  lay  there, 
many  of  them  motionless,  and  the  children,  nu- 
merous as  the  sands  of  the  sea, — unkempt  and 
unwashed,  were  everywhere  in  evidence. 

You  felt  great  pity  for  the  little  ones,  and  you 
threw  chocolate  cakes  among  them,  smiling  as 
you  saw  them  in  their  tangled  struggle  to  get 
your  sweet  bounty. 

You  pitied  them  all ;  the  frowsy  headed,  ill 
clothed  women,  the  men  who  looked  so  hungry 
and  so  greedy,  and  above  all  you  pitied,  you 
said  so, — do  you  remember? — you  said  you 
pitied  your  own  country  for  having  to  receive 
such  a  conglomerate  of  human  beings,  so  near 
to  the  level  of  the  beasts.  I  well  recall  it ;  for 
that  day  they  did  look  like  animals.  It  was  the 
day  after  the  storm  and  they  had  all  been  sea- 
sick ;  they  had  neither  the  spirit  nor  the  appli- 
ances necessary  for  cleanliness.  The  toilet  rooms 
were  small  and  hard  to  reach,  and  sea  water  as 
you  well  know  is  not  a  good  cleanser.  They 


From  stereograph  copyright — 1905,  by  Undcncood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 
AS  SEEN  BY  MY  LADY  OF  THE  FIRST  CABIN. 

The   fellowship   of  the   steerage   makes  good   comrades,   where   no   barriers 
exist  and  introductions  are  neither  possible  nor  necessary. 


BY  WAY  OF  INTRODUCTION        n 

were  wrapped  in  gray  blankets  which  they  had 
brought  from  their  bunks,  and  you  were  right ; 
they  did  look  like  animals,  but  not  half  so  clean 
as  the  cattle  which  one  sees  so  often  on  an  out- 
ward journey  ;  certainly  not  half  so  comfortable. 

You  were  taken  aback  when  I  spoke  to  you. 
I  took  offense  at  your  suspecting  us  to  be  beasts, 
for  I  was  one  of  them ;  although  all  that  sepa- 
rated you  and  me  was  a  little  iron  bar,  about  fif- 
teen or  twenty  rungs  of  an  iron  ladder,  and  per- 
haps as  many  dollars  in  the  price  of  our  tickets. 

You  were  amazed  at  my  temerity,  and  did  not 
answer  at  once  ;  then  you  begged  my  pardon, 
and  I  grudgingly  forgave  you.  One  likes  to 
have  a  grudge  against  the  first  cabin  when  one 
is  travelling  steerage. 

The  next  time  you  came  to  us,  it  was  without 
your  maid.  You  had  quite  recovered  and  so  had 
we.  The  steerage  deck  was  more  crowded  than 
ever,  but  we  were  happy,  comparatively  speak- 
ing; happy  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  bread 
was  so  doughy  that  we  voluntarily  fed  the  fishes 
with  it,  and  the  meat  was  suspiciously  flavoured. 

Again  you  threw  your  sweetmeats  among  us, 
and  asked  me  to  carry  a  basket  of  fruit  to 
the  women  and  children.  I  did  so ;  I  think  to 
your  satisfaction.  When  I  returned  the  empty 
basket,  you  wished  to  know  all  about  us,  and  I 
proceeded  to  tell  you  many  things — who  the 
Slavs  are,  and  I  brought  you  fine  specimens  of 


12     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

Poles,  Bohemians,  Servians  and  Slovaks, — men, 
women  and  children  :  and  they  began  to  look  to 
you  like  men,  women  and  children,  and  not  like 
beasts.  I  introduced  to  you,  German,  Austrian 
and  Hungarian  Jews,  and  you  began  to  under- 
stand the  difference.  Do  you  remember  the  group 
of  Italians,  to  whom  you  said  good-morning  in 
their  own  tongue,  and  how  they  smiled  back 
upon  you  all  the  joy  of  their  native  land?  And 
you  learned  to  know  the  difference  between  a 
Sicilian  and  a  Neapolitan,  between  a  Pied- 
montese  and  a  Calabrian.  You  met  Lithu- 
anians, Greeks,  Magyars  and  Finns ;  you  came 
in  touch  with  twenty  nationalities  in  an  hour,  and 
your  sympathetic  smile  grew  sweeter,  and  your 
loving  bounty  increased  day  by  day. 

You  wondered  how  I  happened  to  know  these 
people  so  well ;  and  I  told  you  jokingly,  that  it 
was  my  Social  nose  which  over  and  over  again, 
had  led  me  steerage  way  across  the  sea,  back  to 
the  villages  from  which  the  immigrants  come 
and  onward  with  them  into  the  new  life  in 
America. 

You  suspected  that  it  was  not  a  Social  nose 
but  a  Social  heart ;  that  I  was  led  by  my  sympa- 
thies and  not  by  my  scientific  sense,  and  I  did 
not  dispute  you.  You  urged  me  to  write  what  I 
knew  and  what  I  felt,  and  now  you  see,  I  have 
written.  I  have  tried  to  tell  it  in  this  book  as  I 
told  it  to  you  on  board  of  ship.  I  told  you  much 


BY  WAY  OF  INTRODUCTION        13 

about  the  Jews  and  the  Slavs  because  they  are 
less  known  and  come  in  larger  numbers.  When 
I  had  finished  telling  you  just  who  these  stran- 
gers are,  and  something  of  their  life  at  home 
and  among  us,  in  the  strange  land,  you  grew 
very  sympathetic,  without  being  less  conscious 
how  great  is  the  problem  which  these  strangers 
bring  with  them. 

If  I  succeed  in  accomplishing  this  for  my 
larger  audience,  the  public,  I  shall  be  con- 
tent. 

You  were  loth  to  listen  to  figures ;  for  you  said 
that  statistics  were  not  to  your  liking  and  apt  to 
be  misleading ;  so  I  leave  them  from  these  pages 
and  crowd  them  somewhere  into  the  back  of  the 
book,  where  the  curious  may  find  them  if  they 
delight  in  them. 

My  telling  deals  only  with  life ;  all  I  attempt 
to  do  is  to  tell  what  I  have  lived  among  the  im- 
migrants, and  not  much  of  what  I  have  counted. 
Here  and  there  I  have  dropped  a  story  which 
you  said  might  be  worth  re-telling;  and  I  tell  it 
as  I  told  it  to  you — not  to  earn  the  smile  which 
may  follow,  but  simply  that  it  may  win  a  little 
more  sympathy  for  the  immigrant. 

If  here  and  there  I  stop  to  moralize,  it  is  largely 
from  force  of  habit ;  and  not  because  I  am  eager 
to  play  either  preacher  or  prophet.  If  I  point 
out  some  great  problems,  I  do  it  because  I  love 
America  with  a  love  passing  your  own ;  because 


I4     ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

you  are  home-born  and  know  not  the  lot  of  the 
stranger. 

You  may  be  incredulous  if  I  tell  you  that  I  do 
not  realize  that  I  was  not  born  and  educated 
here ;  that  I  am  not  thrilled  by  the  sight  of  my 
cradle  home,  nor  moved  by  my  country's 
flag. 

I  know  no  Fatherland  but  America ;  for  after 
all,  it  matters  less  where  one  was  born,  than 
where  one's  ideals  had  their  birth ;  and  to  me, 
America  is  not  the  land  of  mighty  dollars,  but 
the  land  of  great  ideals. 

I  am  not  yet  convinced  that  the  peril  to  these 
ideals  lies  in  those  who  come  to  you,  crude  and 
unfinished ;  if  I  were,  I  would  be  the  first  one  to 
call  out :  "  Shut  the  gates,"  and  not  the  last  one 
to  exile  myself  for  your  country's  good. 

I  think  that  the  peril  lies  more  in  the  first  cabin 
than  in  the  steerage ;  more  in  the  American 
colonies  in  Monte  Carlo  and  Nice  than  in  the 
Italian  colonies  in  New  York  and  Chicago.  Not 
the  least  of  the  peril  lies  in  the  fact  that  there  is 
too  great  a  gulf  between  you  and  the  steerage 
passenger,  whose  virtues  you  will  discover  as 
soon  as  you  learn  to  know  him. 

I  send  out  this  book  in  the  hope  that  it  will 
mediate  between  the  first  cabin  and  the  steerage ; 
between  the  hilltop  and  lower  town ;  between 
the  fashionable  West  side  and  the  Ghetto. 

Do  you  remember  my  Lady  of  the  First  Cabin, 


BY  WAY  OF  INTRODUCTION        15 

what  those  Slovaks  said  to  you  as  you  walked 
down  the  gangplank  in  Hoboken  ?  What  they 
said  to  you,  I  now  say  to  my  book :  "  Z'Boghem," 
"  The  Lord  be  with  thee." 


II 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  TRAIL 

SOME  twenty  years  ago,  while  travelling  from 
Vienna  on  the  Northern  Railway,  I  was  locked 
into  my  compartment  with  three  Slavic  women, 
who  entered  at  a  way  station,  and  who  for  the 
first  time  in  their  lives  had  ventured  from  their 
native  home  by  way  of  the  railroad.  In  fear  and 
awe  they  looked  out  the  window  upon  the  mov- 
ing landscape,  while  with  each  recurring  jolt 
they  held  tightly  to  the  wooden  benches. 

One  of  them  volunteered  the  information  that 
they  were  journeying  a  great  distance,  nearly 
twenty-five  miles  from  their  native  village.  I 
ventured  to  say  that  I  was  going  much  further 
than  twenty-five  miles,  upon  which  I  was  asked 
my  destination.  I  replied  :  "  America,"  expect- 
ing much  astonishment  at  the  announcment ;  but 
all  they  said  was  :  " Merica ?  where  is  that?  is  it 
really  further  than  twenty-five  miles  ?  " 

Until  about  the  time  mentioned,  the  people  of 
Eastern  and  Southeastern  Europe  had  remained 
stationary  ;  just  where  they  had  been  left  by  the 
slow  and  glacial  like  movement  of  the  races  and 
tribes  to  which  they  belonged.  Scarcely  any 
traces  of  their  former  migrations  survive,  except 

16 


THE  BEGINNING  of  The  TRAIL       17 

where  some  warlike  tribe  has  exploited  its  history 
in  song,  describing  its  escape  from  the  enemy, 
into  some  mountain  fastness,  which  was  of  course 
deserted  as  soon  as  the  fury  of  war  had  spent  it- 
self. 

From  the  great  movements  which  changed 
the  destinies  of  other  European  nations,  these 
people  were  separated  by  political  and  religious 
barriers ;  so  that  the  discovery  of  America  was  as 
little  felt  as  the  discovery  of  the  new  religious  and 
political  world  laid  bare  by  the  Reformation. 
Each  tribe  and  even  each  smaller  group  developed 
according  to  its  own  native  strength,  or  according 
to  how  closely  it  leaned  towards  Western  Europe, 
which  was  passing  through  great  evolutionary  and 
revolutionary  changes. 

On  the  whole,  it  may  be  said  that  in  many 
ways  they  remained  stationary,  certainly  immo- 
bile. Old  customs  survived  and  became  laws ; 
slight  differentiations  in  dress  occurred  and  be- 
came the  unalterable  costume  of  certain  regions ; 
idioms  grew  into  dialects  and  where  the  native 
genius  manifested  itself  in  literature,  the  dialect 
became  a  language.  These  artificial  boundaries 
became  impassable,  especially  where  differences 
in  religion  occurred.  Each  group  was  locked  in, 
often  hating  its  nearest  neighbours  and  closest 
kinsmen,  and  also  having  an  aversion  to  anything 
which  came  from  without.  Social  and  economic 
causes  played  no  little  part,  both  in  the  isolation 


i8     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

of  these  tribes  and  groups  and  in  the  necessity 
for  migration.  When  the  latter  was  necessary, 
they  moved  together  to  where  there  was  less 
tyranny  and  more  virgin  soil.  They  went  out 
peacefully  most  of  the  time,  but  could  be  bitter, 
relentless  and  brave  when  they  encountered  op- 
position. 

But  they  did  not  go  out  with  the  conqueror's 
courage  nor  with  the  adventurer's  lust  for  fame  ; 
they  were  no  iconoclasts  of  a  new  civilization,  nor 
the  bearers  of  new  tidings.  They  went  where  no 
one  remained ;  where  the  Romans  had  thinned 
the  ranks  of  the  Germans,  where  Hun,  Avar  and 
Turk  had  left  valleys  soaked  in  blood  and  made 
ready  for  the  Slav's  crude  plow ;  where  Roman 
colonies  were  decaying  and  Roman  cities  were 
sinking  into  the  dunes  made  by  ocean's  sands. 
They  destroyed  nothing  nor  did  they  build  any- 
thing ;  they  accepted  little  or  nothing  which  they 
found  on  conquered  soil,  but  lived  the  old  life  in 
the  new  home,  whether  it  was  under  the  shadow  of 
the  Turkish  crescent,  or  where  Roman  conquer- 
ors had  left  empty  cities  and  decaying  palaces. 

In  travelling  through  that  most  interesting 
Austrian  province,  Dalmatia,  on  the  shores  of  the 
Adriatic,  opposite  Italy,  I  came  upon  the  palace 
of  Diocletian,  in  which  the  Slav  has  built  a  town, 
using  the  palace  walls  for  the  foundations  of  his 
dwellings.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  both  strength 
and  beauty  lie  imbedded  in  these  foundations,  the 


THE  BEGINNING  of  The  TRAIL       19 

houses  are  as  crude  and  simple  as  those  built  in 
an  American  mining  camp.  Upon  the  ruins  of 
the  ancient  city  of  Salona,  I  found  peasants  break- 
ing the  Corinthian  pillars  into  gravel  for  donkey 
paths.  These  people  although  surrounded  by 
conquering  nations  were  not  amalgamated,  and 
were  enslaved  but  not  changed.  Art  lived  and 
died  in  their  midst  but  bequeathed  them  little  or 
no  culture. 

This  is  true  not  only  of  many  of  the  Slavs  but 
also  of  many  of  the  Jews  who  live  among  them 
and  who  have  remained  unimpressed  and  un- 
changed for  centuries ;  except  as  tyrannical 
governments  played  shuffle-board  with  them, 
pushing  them  hither  and  thither  as  policy  or  ca- 
price dictated. 

The  Italian  peasant  began  his  wanderings 
earlier  than  the  other  nations,  at  least  to  other 
portions  of  Europe,  where  he  was  regarded  as 
indispensable  in  the  building  of  railroads.  These 
movements,  however,  were  spasmodic,  and  he 
soon  returned  to  his  native  village  to  remain 
there,  locked  in  by  prejudice  and  superstition, 
and  unbaptized  by  the  spirit  of  progress. 

But  all  this  is  different  now  ;  and  the  change 
came  through  that  word  quite  unknown  in 
those  regions  twenty-five  years  ago — the  word 
AMERICA.  Having  exhausted  the  labour  sup- 
ply of  northern  Europe  which,  as  for  instance  in 
Germany,  needed  all  its  strength  for  the  up- 


20     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

building  of  its  own  industries,  American  capital- 
ists deemed  it  necessary  to  find  new  human 
forces  to  increase  their  wealth  by  developing  the 
vast,  untouched  natural  resources.  Just  how 
systematically  the  recruiting  was  carried  on  is 
hard  to  tell,  but  it  is  sure  that  it  did  not  require 
much  effort,  and  that  the  only  thing  necessary 
was  to  make  a  beginning. 

In  nearly  all  the  countries  from  which  new 
forces  were  to  be  drawn  there  was  chronic,  eco- 
nomic distress,  which  had  lasted  long,  and  which 
grew  more  painful  as  new  and  higher  needs  dis- 
closed themselves  to  the  lower  classes  of  society. 
Most  of  the  land  as  a  rule,  was  held  by  a  privi- 
leged class,  and  labour  was  illy  paid.  The  aver- 
age earning  of  a  Slovak  peasant  during  the 
harvest  season  was  about  twenty-five  cents  a 
day,  which  sank  to  half  that  sum  the  rest  of  the 
time,  with  work  as  scarce  as  wages  were  low. 

If  a  load  of  wood  was  brought  to  town,  it  was 
besieged  by  a  small  army  of  labourers  ready  to 
do  [the  necessary  sawing  ;  other  work  than  wood 
sawing  there  practically  was  none,  and  conse- 
quently in  the  winter  time  much  distress  pre- 
vailed. 

The  labour  of  women  was  still  more  poorly 
paid.  A  muscular  servant  girl,  who  would  wash, 
scrub,  attend  to  the  garden  and  cattle  and  help 
with  the  harvesting,  received  about  ten  dollars  a 
year,  with  a  huge  cake  and  perhaps  a  pair  of 


THE  BEGINNING  of  The  TRAIL       21 

boots  no  less  huge  as  a  premium.  These  wages 
were  paid  only  in  the  most  prosperous  portion  of 
the  Slavic  world,  being  much  lower  in  other  re~ 
gions,  while  in  the  mountains  neither  work  nor 
wages  were  obtainable. 

The  hard  rye  bread,  scantily  cut  and  rarely 
unadulterated,  with  an  onion,  was  the  daily 
portion,  while  meat  to  many  of  the  people  was  a 
luxury  obtainable  only  on  special  holidays.  I  re- 
member vividly  the  untimely  passing  away  of  a 
pig,  which  belonged  to  a  tided  estate.  Accord- 
ing to  the  law,  which  reached  with  its  mighty 
arm  to  this  small  village,  the  pig  must  be  de- 
cently buried  and  covered  by — not  balsam  and 
spices,  but  quick  lime  and  coal  oil.  Hardly 
had  these  rites  been  performed  when  the  carcass 
mysteriously  disappeared — but  meat  was  scarce, 
and  the  peasants  were  hungry. 

During  this  same  period,  the  Jewish  people  who 
were  scattered  through  Eastern  Europe,  began 
to  feel  not  only  economic  distress,  but  existence 
itself  was  often  made  unbearable  by  the  newly 
awakened  national  feeling,  which  reacted  against 
the  Jews  in  waves  of  cruel  persecution.  Such 
trade  as  could  be  diverted  into  other  channels 
was  taken  from  them  and  they  grew  daily 
poorer,  living  became  precarious  and  life  insecure. 
It  did  not  take  much  agitation  to  induce  any  of 
these  people  to  emigrate,  and  when  the  first 
venturesome  travellers  returned  with  money  in 


22     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

the  bank,  silver  watches  in  their  pockets,  "  store 
clothes  "  on  their  backs,  and  a  feeling  of  "  I  am 
as  good  as  anybody  "  in  their  minds,  each  one 
of  them  became  an  agent  and  an  agitator,  and 
if  paid  agents  ever  existed,  they  might  have  been 
immediately  dispensed  with. 

Now  one  can  stand  in  any  district  town  of 
Hungary,  Poland  or  Italy  and  see,  coming  down 
the  mountains  or  passing  along  the  highways 
and  byways  of  the  plains,  larger  or  smaller 
groups  of  peasants,  not  all  picturesquely  clad, 
passing  in  a  never  ending  stream,  on,  towards 
this  new  world.  The  stream  is  growing  larger 
each  day,  and  the  source  seems  inexhausti- 
ble. 

Sombre  Jews  come,  on  whose  faces  fear  and 
care  have  plowed  deep  furrows,  whose  backs  are 
bent  beneath  the  burden  of  law  and  lawlessness. 
They  come,  thousands  at  a  time,  at  least  5,000,- 
ooo  more  may  be  expected ;  and  he  does  not 
know  what  misery  is,  who  has  not  seen  them  on 
that  march  which  has  lasted  nearly  2,000  years 
beneath  the  burden  heaped  by  hate  and  prejudice. 
Both  peasant  and  Jew  come  from  Russian,  Aus- 
trian or  Magyar  rule,  under  which  they  have 
had  few  of  the  privileges  of  citizenship  but 
many  of  its  burdens.  From  valleys  in  the  cres- 
cent shaped  Carpathians,  from  the  sunny  but 
barren  slopes  of  the  Alps  and  from  the  Russian- 
Polish  plains  they  are  coming  as  once  they  went 


THE  BEGINNING  of  The  TRAIL       23 

forth  from  earlier  homes ;  peaceful  toilers,  who 
seek  a  field  for  their  surplus  labour  or  as  traders 
to  use  their  wits,  and  it  is  a  longer  journey  than 
any  of  their  timid  forbears  ever  undertook. 

The  most  venturesome  of  the  Slavs,  the  Bohe- 
mians, in  whom  the  love  of  wandering  was  al- 
ways alive,  started  this  stream  of  emigration 
as  early  as  the  seventeenth  century,  sending  us 
the  noblest  of  their  sons  and  daughters,  the 
heroes  and  heroines  of  the  reformatory  wars  ; 
idealists,  who  like  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  came  for 
"  Freedom  to  worship  God."  Their  descend- 
ants have  long  ago  been  blended  into  the  com- 
mon life  of  the  people  of  America,  scarcely  con- 
scious of  the  fact  that  they  might  have  the  same 
pride  in  ancestry  which  the  descendants  of  the 
Pilgrims  delight  to  exhibit.  Not  until  the  latter 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in  the  yos,  did  the 
Bohemian  immigrants  come  in  large  numbers  and 
in  a  steady  stream,  bringing  with  them  the 
Czechs  of  Moravia,  a  neighbouring  province. 
Together  they  make  some  200,000  of  our  popula- 
tion, fairly  distributed  throughout  the  country,  and 
about  equally  divided  between  tillers  of  the  soil 
and  those  following  industrial  pursuits.  Nearly 
all  Bohemian  immigrants  come  to  stay,  and  ad- 
just themselves  more  or  less  easily  to  their  en- 
vironment. The  economic  distress  which  has 
brought  them  here,  while  never  acute,  threatens 
to  become  so  now  from  the  over  accentuated 


24     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

language  struggle  which  diverts  the  energies  oi 
the  people  and  makes  proper  legislation  im- 
possible. The  building  of  railroads  and  other 
governmental  enterprises  have  been  retarded  by 
parliamentary  obstructionists,  to  whom  language 
is  more  than  bread  and  butter.  Business  re- 
lations with  the  Germanic  portions  of  Austria 
have  come  almost  to  a  standstill ;  conditions 
which  are  bound  to  increase  emigration  from 
Bohemia's  industrial  centres. 

The  Poles  were  the  next  of  the  Western  Slavs 
to  be  drawn  out  of  the  seclusion  of  their  villages ; 
those  from  Eastern  Prussia  being  the  earliest, 
and  those  from  Russian  Poland  the  latest  who 
have  swelled  the  stream  of  emigration. 

The  largest  number  of  the  Polish  immigrants  is 
composed  of  unskilled  labourers,  most  of  them 
coming  from  villages  where  they  worked  in  the 
fields  during  the  summer  time,  and  in  winter 
went  to  the  cities  where  they  did  the  cruder  work 
in  the  factories.  The  Poles  from  Germany's  part 
of  the  divided  kingdom  have  furnished  nearly 
their  quota  of  immigrants,  and  those  remain- 
ing upon  their  native  acres  will  continue  to  re- 
main there,  if  only  to  spite  the  Germans  who  are 
grievously  disappointed  not  to  see  them  grow 
less  under  the  repressive  measures  of  the  govern- 
ment. They  are  the  thorn  in  the  Emperor's 
flesh,  and  with  social  Democrats  make  enough 
trouble,  to  verify  the  saying  :  "  Uneasy  lies  the 


THE  BEGINNING  of  The  TRAIL       25 

head  that  wears  a  crown,"  true  1  even  with  re- 
gard to  that  most  imperial  of  emperors. 

The  Austrian  Poles  who  have  retained  many 
of  their  liberties  and  have  also  gained  new  privi- 
leges, have  had  a  national  and  intellectual  re- 
vival, under  the  impulse  of  which  the  peasantry 
has  been  lifted  to  a  higher  level  which  has  re- 
acted upon  their  economic  condition ;  and  al- 
though that  condition  is  rather  low  in  Galicia,  as 
that  portion  of  Poland  is  called,  immigration  from 
there  has  reached  its  high  water  mark.  The 
largest  increase  in  immigration  among  the  Poles 
is  to  be  looked  for  from  Russian  Poland  where 
industrial  and  political  conditions  are  growing 
worse,  and  where  it  will  take  a  long  time  to 
establish  any  kind  of  equilibrium  which  will 
pacify  the  people  and  hold  them  to  the  soil. 

The  Slovaks,  who  were  relatively  the  best  off, 
and  further  away  from  the  main  arteries  of  travel, 
are,  comparatively  speaking,  newcomers  and 
furnish  at  present  the  largest  element  in  the 
Western  Slavic  immigration.  They  have  re- 
tained most  staunchly  many  of  their  Slavic 
characteristics,  are  the  least  impressionable 
among  the  Western  Slavs,  and  usually  come, 
lured  by  the  increased  wages.  They  are  most 
liable  to  return  to  the  land  of  their  fathers  after 
saving  money  enough  materially  to  improve 
their  lot  in  life. 

From  the  Austrian   provinces,  Carinthia  and 


26     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

Styria,  come  increasingly  large  numbers  of 
Slovenes  who  are  really  the  link  between  the 
Eastern  and  Western  Slavs.  They  belong  to 
the  highest  type  of  that  race,  but  represent  only 
a  small  portion  of  the  large  Slavic  family.  Of 
the  Eastern  Slavs,  only  the  Southern  group  has 
moved  towards  America,  the  Russian  peasant 
being  bound  to  the  soil,  and  unable  to  free  him- 
self from  the  obligation  of  paying  the  heavy 
taxes,  by  removal  to  a  foreign  country.  With 
the  larger  freedom  which  is  bound  to  come  to 
him,  will  also  come  economic  relief  so  that  the 
emigration  of  the  Russian  peasant  in  large  num- 
bers is  not  a  likelihood. 

Lured  by  promises  of  higher  wages  in  our  in- 
dustrial centres,  Croatians  and  Slovenians  come 
in  increasingly  large  numbers,  while  in  smaller 
numbers  come  Servians  and  Bulgarians. 

The  only  Slavs  who  are  thorough  seamen  and 
who  are  coming  to  our  coasts  in  increasingly 
large  numbers  as  sailors  and  fishermen,  are  the 
Dalmatians ;  and  last  but  most  heroic  of  all  the 
Slavs,  is  the  Montenegrin,  who  has  held  his 
mountain  fastnesses  against  the  Turk  and  who 
has  been  the  living  wall,  resisting  the  victories  of 
Islam.  His  little  country  is  blessed  by  but  a  few 
crumbs  of  soil  between  huge  mountains  and 
boulders,  and  in  the  measure  in  which  peace 
reigns  in  the  Balkans,  he  is  without  occupation 
and  sustenance  ;  so  that  he  is  compelled  to  seek 


J! 

***& 


THE  BEGINNING  of  The  TRAIL       27 

these  more  fertile  shores,  where  he  will  for  the 
first  time  in  history  and  quite  unconsciously, 
"  Turn  the  sword  into  a  plowshare  and  the  spear 
into  a  pruning  hook." 

Tennyson  does  not  over-idealize  this  Monte- 
negrin in  his  admirable  sonnet : 

They  rose  to  where  their  sovran  eagle  sails, 
They  kept  their  faith,  their  freedom,  on  the  height, 
Chaste,  frugal,  savage,  arra'd  by  day  and  night 
Against  the  Turk ;  whose  inroad  nowhere  scales 
Their  headlong  passes,  but  his  footstep  fails, 
And  red  with  blood  the  Crescent  reels  from  fight 
Before  their  dauntless  hundreds,  in  prone  fight 
By  thousands  down  the  crags  and  thro'  the  vales. 
O  smallest  among  peoples  !  rough  rock  throne 
Of  Freedom  !  warriors  beating  back  the  swarm 
Of  Turkish  Islam  for  five  hundred  years. 
Great  Tsernogora  !  never  since  thine  own 
Black  ridges  drew  the  cloud  and  brake  the  storm 
Has  breathed  a  race  of  mightier  mountaineers. 

From  Lithuania,  a  province  of  Russia,  come 
smaller  groups  of  non-Slavic  emigrants ;  people 
with  an  old  civilization  of  which  little  remains, 
and  with  a  language  which  leans  closest  to  San- 
scrit, yet  who,  because  of  their  subjection  to 
Russia,  have  sunk  to  the  level  of  the  Russian 
peasants.  Then  there  are  Magyars  and  Finns, 
rather  close  kinsmen,  who  because  one  lives  in 
the  South  and  the  other  far  North,  are  as  dif- 
ferent as  the  South  is  from  the  North ;  Greeks 


28     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

and  Syrians,  traders  all  of  them  and  workers  only 
when  they  must  be.  We  shall  follow  them  more 
closely  as  they  pass  into  our  own  national  life. 

The  Italian  emigration,  the  largest  which  we 
receive  from  any  one  source,  comes  primarily 
from  Southern  Italy,  from  the  crowded  cities 
with  their  unspeakable  vices  ;  the  smallest  num- 
ber of  emigrants  come  from  the  villages  where 
they  have  all  the  virtues  of  tillers  of  the  soil. 
The  most  volatile  of  our  foreign  population,  and 
perhaps  the  most  clannish,  they  represent  a 
problem  recognized  by  their  home  government, 
which  was  the  first  to  concern  itself  with  it,  to 
study  it  systematically,  and  to  aid  our  government 
so  far  as  possible  in  a  rational  solution.  The 
number  of  Italian  emigrants  is  still  undimin- 
ished,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  in  recent  years 
more  than  200,000  of  them  have  annually  left 
their  native  land,  their  withdrawal  is  scarcely 
felt  and  the  number  could  be  doubled  without 
perceptible  diminution  at  home. 

There  are  then  upon  this  immigrant  trail, 
many  people  of  varied  cultural  development ; 
some  of  them  coming  from  countries  in  which 
they  have  been  part  of  a  very  high  type  of  civi- 
lization, while  others  come  from  the  veritable 
back  woods  of  Europe,  into  which  neither  steam 
nor  electricity  has  entered  to  disturb  the  old 
order,  nor  has  yet  awakened  a  new  life. 

None  of  them  starts  for  America  tempted  by 


THE  BEGINNING  of  The  TRAIL       29 

wealth  which  can  be  picked  up  in  the  streets. 
That  mythical  man  who,  upon  landing,  refused 
to  take  a  quarter  from  the  side-walk,  because  he 
had  heard  that  dollars  were  lying  about  loose,  in 
America,  has  found  it  true  because  he  has  gone 
into  politics. 

The  immigrant  of  to-day,  be  he  Slav,  Italian  or 
Jew,  starts  upon  this  trail,  with  no  culture,  it  is 
true,  but  with  a  virgin  mind  in  which  it  may  be 
made  to  grow.  Not  always  with  a  keen  mind, 
but  with  a  surplus  of  muscle,  which  he  is  ready 
to  exchange  at  the  mouth  of  the  pit  or  by  the 
furnace's  hot  blast,  for  a  higher  wage  than  he 
could  earn  in  the  miry  fields  of  his  native  vil- 
lage ; — but  it  is  by  no  means  settled  who  gets 
the  best  of  the  bargain. 


Ill 

THE  FELLOWSHIP  OF  THE  STEERAGE 

BACK  of  Warsaw,  Vienna,  Naples  and  Palermo, 
with  no  place  on  the  world's  map  to  mark  their 
existence,  are  small  market  towns  to  which  the 
peasants  come  from  their  hidden  villages.  They 
come  not  as  is  their  wont  on  feast  and  fast  days, 
with  song  and  music,  but  solemnly  ;  the  women 
bent  beneath  their  burdens,  carried  on  head  or 
back,  and  the  men  who  walk  beside  them,  less 
conscious  than  usual  of  their  superiority. 

The  women  have  lost  the  splendour  which 
usually  marks  their  attire.  Their  embroidered, 
stiffly  starched  petticoats,  flowered  aprons  and 
gay  kerchiefs  have  disappeared,  and  instead  they 
have  put  on  more  sombre  garb,  some  cast  off 
clothing  of  our  civilization.  The  men,  too,  have 
left  their  gayer  coats  behind  them,  to  wear  the 
shoddy  ones  which  neither  warm  nor  become 
them. 

Beneath  the  black  cross  which  marks  the 
boundary  of  the  Polish  town,  they  usually  rest 
themselves.  The  cross  was  erected  when  the 
peasants  were  liberated  from  serfdom,  and  be- 
neath it  every  wanderer  rests  and  prays :  every 
wanderer  but  the  Jew,  for  whom  the  cross  sym- 
bolizes neither  liberty  nor  rest. 

30 


THE  FELLOWSHIP  of  The  STEERAGE  31 

These  towns  which  used  to  be  buried  in  a 
cloud  of  dust  in  the  summer  and  a  sea  of  mud 
in  the  winter  time ;  to  which  the  peasant  came 
but  rarely,  and  then  only  to  do  his  petty  trading 
or  his  quarrelling  before  the  law,  are  the  first 
catch  basins  of  the  little  percolating  streams  of 
emigration,  and  have  felt  their  influence  in 
increased  prosperity.  They  are  the  supply 
stations  where  much  of  the  money  is  spent  on 
the  way  out,  and  into  which  the  money  flows 
from  the  mining  camps  and  industrial  centres  in 
America.  One  little  house  leans  hospitably 
against  the  other,  a  two-story  house  marks  the 
dwelling  of  nobility,  and  the  power  of  the  law  is 
personified  in  the  gendarmes,  who,  weaponed  to 
the  teeth,  patrol  the  peaceful  town. 

In  Russia,  before  one  may  emigrate,  many 
painful  and  costly  formalities  must  be  observed, 
a  passport  obtained  through  the  governor  and 
speeded  on  its  way  by  sundry  tips.  It  is  in 
itself  an  expensive  document  without  which 
no  Russian  subject  may  leave  his  community, 
much  less  his  country.  Many  persons,  there- 
fore, forego  the  pleasure  of  securing  official  per- 
mission to  leave  the  Czar's  domain,  and  go, 
trusting  to  good  luck  or  to  a  few  rubles  with 
which  they  may  close  the  ever  open  eyes  of  the 
gendarmes  of  the  Russian  boundary.  Austrian 
and  Italian  authorities  also  require  passports  for 
their  subjects,  but  they  are  less  costly  and  are 


32     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

granted  to  all  who  have  satisfied  the  demands  of 
the  law. 

These  formalities  over,  the  travellers  move  on 
to  the  market  square,  a  dusty  place,  where 
women  squat,  selling  fruits  and  vegetables ; 
the  plaster  cast  and  gaily  decorated  saints,  sto- 
ically receiving  the  adoration  of  our  pilgrims, 
who  come  for  the  last  time  with  a  petition  which 
now  is  for  a  prosperous  journey. 

There  also,  the  agent  of  the  steamship  com- 
pany receives  with  just  as  much  feeling  their 
hard  earned  money  in  exchange  for  the  long 
coveted  "  Ticket,"  which  is  to  bear  them  to  their 
land  of  hope. 

From  hundreds  of  such  towns  and  squares, 
thousands  of  simple-minded  people  turn  west- 
ward each  day,  disappearing  in  the  clouds  of 
dust  which  mark  their  progress  to  the  railroad 
station  and  on  towards  the  dreaded  sea. 

From  the  small  windows  of  fourth-class  rail- 
way carriages  they  get  glimpses  of  a  new  world, 
larger  than  they  ever  dreamed  it  to  be,  and 
much  more  beautiful.  Through  orderly  and 
stately  Germany,  with  its  picturesque  villages, 
its  castled  hills  and  magnificent  cities  they  pass ; 
across  mountains  and  hills,  and  by  rushing 
rivers,  until  one  day  upon  the  horizon  they  see 
a  forest  of  masts  wedged  in  between  the  ware- 
houses and  factories  of  a  great  city. 

Guided  by  an  official  of  the  steamship  com- 


THE  FELLOWSHIP  of  The  STEERAGE  33 

pany  whose  wards  they  have  become,  they 
alight  from  the  train  ;  but  not  without  having 
here  and  there  to  pay  tribute  to  that  organized 
brigandage,  by  which  every  port  of  embarkation 
is  infested.  The  beer  they  drink  and  the  food 
they  buy,  the  necessary  and  unnecessary  things 
which  they  are  urged  to  purchase,  are  excessively 
dear,  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  a  double  profit  is 
made  for  the  benefit  of  the  officials  or  the  com- 
pany which  they  represent. 

The  first  lodging  places  before  they  are  taken 
to  the  harbours,  are  dear,  poor  and  often  unsafe. 
Much  bad  business  is  done  there  which  might 
be  controlled  or  entirely  discontinued.  For  in- 
stance in  Rotterdam  three  years  ago,  coming 
with  a  party  of  emigrants,  we  were  met  by  an 
employee  of  the  steamship  company  and  taken 
in  charge,  ostensibly  to  be  guided  to  the  com- 
pany's offices  near  the  harbour.  On  the  way  we 
were  made  to  stop  at  a  dirty,  third-class  hotel 
(whose  chief  equipment  was  a  huge  bar)  and 
were  told  to  make  ourselves  comfortable.  While 
we  were  not  compelled  to  spend  our  money,  we 
were  invited  to  do  so,  urged  to  drink,  and  left 
there  fully  three  hours  until  this  same  employee 
called  for  us.  I  complained  to  the  company 
through  the  only  official  whom  I  could  reach, 
and  who  no  doubt  was  one  of  the  beneficiaries, 
for  the  complaint  did  not  travel  far. 

This  is  only  the  remnant  of  an  abuse  from 


34    ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

which  the  emigrant  and  the  country  which 
received  him,  used  to  suffer ;  for  our  stringent 
immigration  laws  have  made  it  more  profitable 
to  treat  the  immigrant  with  consideration  and  to 
look  after  his  physical  welfare. 

Yet,  admirable  as  is  the  machinery  which  has 
been  set  up  at  Hamburg  for  the  reception  of 
the  emigrant,  these  minor  abuses  have  not 
all  passed  away  and  while  care  is  taken  that  his 
health  does  not  suffer  and  that  his  purse  is  not 
completely  emptied,  he  is  still  regarded  as  prey. 

The  Italian  government  safeguards  its  emi- 
grants admirably  at  Naples  and  Genoa ;  but 
other  governments  are  seemingly  unconcerned. 
When  the  official  has  done  with  the  emigrants, 
they  are  taken  to  the  emigrant  depot  of  the 
company  (which  in  many  cases  is  inadequate 
for  the  large  number  of  passengers),  their 
papers  are  examined  and  they  are  separated 
according  to  sex  and  religion.  At  Hamburg 
they  are  required  to  take  baths  and  their  cloth- 
ing is  disinfected;  after  which  they  constantly 
emit  the  delicious  odours  of  hot  steam  and  carbolic 
acid.  The  sleeping  arrangements  at  Hamburg 
are  excellent.  Usually  twenty  persons  are  in 
one  ward,  but  private  rooms  which  have  beds 
for  four  people  can  be  rented. 

The  food  is  abundant  and  good,  plenty  of 
bread  and  meat  are  to  be  had,  and  luxuries  can 
be  bought  at  reasonable  prices.  At  Hamburg 


THE  FELLOWSHIP  of  The  STEERAGE  35 

music  is  provided  and  the  emigrants  may 
make  merry  at  a  darice  until  dawn  ot  the  day 
of  sailing. 

The  medical  examination  is  now  very  strict, 
yet  seemingly  not  strict  enough ;  for  quite  a 
large  percentage  of  those  who  pass  the  German 
physicians  are  deported  on  account  of  physical 
unfitness. 

I  wish  to  make  this  point  here,  and  emphasize 
it :  that  restrictive  immigration  has  had  a  re- 
markable influence  upon  the  German  and  Neth- 
erlands steamship  companies,  in  that  they  have 
become  fairly  humane  and  decent,  which  they 
were  not ;  but  improvement  in  this  direction  is 
still  possible. 

The  day  of  embarkation  finds  an  excited 
crowd  with  heavy  packs  and  heavier  hearts, 
climbing  the  gangplank.  An  uncivil  crew 
directs  the  bewildered  travellers  to  their  quarters, 
which  in  the  older  ships  are  far  too  inadequate, 
and  in  the  newer  ships  are,  if  anything,  worse. 

Clean  they  are  ;  but  there  is  neither  breathing 
space  below  nor  deck  room  above,  and  the  900 
steerage  passengers  crowded  into  the  hold  of  so 
elegant  and  roomy  a  steamer  as  the  Kaiser 
Wilhelm  77,  of  the  North  German  Lloyd  line, 
are  positively  packed  like  cattle,  making  a  walk 
on  deck  when  the  weather  is  good,  absolutely 
impossible,  while  to  breathe  clean  air  below  in 
rough  weather,  when  the  hatches  are  down  is 


36     ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

an  equal  impossibility.  The  stenches  become 
unbearable,  and  many  of  the  emigrants  have 
to  be  driven  down  ;  for  they  prefer  the  bitterness 
and  danger  of  the  storm  to  the  pestilential  air 
below.  The  division  between  the  sexes  is  not 
carefully  looked  after,  and  the  young  women 
who  are  quartered  among  the  married  passengers 
have  neither  the  privacy  to  which  they  are  en- 
titled nor  are  they  much  more  protected  than  if 
they  were  living  promiscuously. 

The  food,  which  is  miserable,  is  dealt  out  of 
huge  kettles  into  the  dinner  pails  provided  by 
the  steamship  company.  When  it  is  distributed, 
the  stronger  push  and  crowd,  so  that  meals  are 
anything  but  orderly  procedures.  On  the  whole, 
the  steerage  of  the  modern  ship  ought  to  be 
condemned  as  unfit  for  the  transportation  of 
human  beings  ;  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  the  German  companies,  and  they  provide 
best  for  their  cabin  passengers,  are  unjust  if 
not  dishonest  towards  the  steerage.  Take  for 
example,  the  second  cabin  which  costs  about 
twice  as  much  as  the  steerage  and  sometimes 
not  twice  so  much ;  yet  the  second  cabin  pas- 
senger on  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  II  has  six 
times  as  much  deck  room,  much  better  located 
and  well  protected  against  inclement  weather. 
Two  to  four  sleep  in  one  cabin,  which  is  well 
and  comfortably  furnished ;  while  in  the  steer- 
age from  200  to  400  sleep  in  one  compartment 


THE  FELLOWSHIP  of  The  STEERAGE  37 

on  bunks,  one  above  the  other,  with  little  light 
and  no  comforts.  In  the  second  cabin  the  food 
is  excellent,  is  partaken  of  in  a  luxuriantly  ap- 
pointed dining-room,  is  well  cooked  and  well 
served ;  while  in  the  steerage  the  unsavoury 
rations  are  not  served,  but  doled  out,  with  less 
courtesy  than  one  would  find  in  a  charity  soup 
kitchen. 

The  steerage  ought  to  be  and  could  be  abolished 
by  law.  It  is  true  that  the  Italian  and  Polish 
peasant  may  not  be  accustomed  to  better  things 
at  home  and  might  not  be  happier  in  better  sur- 
roundings nor  know  how  to  use  them  ;  but  it  is  a 
bad  introduction  to  our  life  to  treat  him  like  an 
animal  wheft  he  is  coming  to  us.  He  ought  to 
be  made  to  feel  immediately,  that  the  standard 
of  living  in  America  is  higher  than  it  is  abroad, 
and  that  life  on  the  higher  plane  begins  on  board 
of  ship.  Every  cabin  passenger  who  has  seen 
and  smelt  the  steerage  from  afar,  knows  that  it  is 
often  indecent  and  inhuman ;  and  I,  who  have 
lived  in  it,  know  that  it  is  both  of  these  and  cruel 
besides. 

On  the  steamer  Noordam,  sailing  from  Rotter- 
dam three  years  ago,  a  Russian  boy  in  the  last 
stages  of  consumption  was  brought  upon  the 
sunny  deck  out  of  the  pestilential  air  of  the  steer- 
age. I  admit  that  to  the  first  cabin  passengers  it 
must  have  been  a  repulsive  sight — this  emaciated, 
dirty,  dying  child  ;  but  to  order  a  sailor  to  drive 


38     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

him  down-stairs,  was  a  cruel  act,  which  I  resented. 
Not  until  after  repeated  complaints  was  the  child 
taken  to  the  hospital  and  properly  nursed,  On 
many  ships,  even  drinking  water  is  grudgingly 
given,  and  on  the  steamer  Staatendam,  four  years 
ago,  we  had  literally  to  steal  water  for  the  steer- 
age from  the  second  cabin,  and  that  of  course 
at  night.  On  many  journeys,  particularly  on  the 
Furst  Bismark,  of  the  Hamburg  American  line, 
five  years  ago,  the  bread  was  absolutely  uneatable, 
and  was  thrown  into  the  water  by  the  irate  emi- 
grants. 

In  providing  better  accommodations,  the  English 
steamship  companies  have  always  led  ;  and  while 
the  discipline  on  board  of  ship  is  always  stricter 
than  on  other  lines,  the  care  bestowed  upon  the 
emigrants  is  correspondingly  greater. 

***** 

At  last  the  passengers  are  stowed  away,  and 
into  the  excitement  of  the  hour  of  departure  there 
comes  a  silent  heaviness,  as  if  the  surgeon's  knife 
were  about  to  cut  the  arteries  of  some  vital  organ. 
Homesickness,  a  disease  scarcely  known  among 
the  mobile  Anglo-Saxons,  is  a  real  presence  in 
the  steerage  ;  for  there  are  the  men  and  women 
who  have  been  torn  from  the  soil  in  which  through 
many  generations  their  lives  were  rooted. 

No  one  knows  the  sacred  agony  of  that  moment 
which  fills  and  thrills  these  simple  minded  folk 
who,  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives  face  the  un- 


THE  FELLOWSHIP  of  The  STEERAGE  39 

known  perils  of  the  sea.  The  greater  the  distance 
which  divides  the  ship  from  the  fast  fading  dock, 
the  nearer  comes  the  little  village,  with  its  dusty 
square,  its  plaster  cast  saints  and  its  little  mud 
huts. 

From  far  away  Russia  a  small  pinched  face 
looks  out  and  a  sweet  voice  calls  to  the  departing 
father,  not  to  forget  Leah  and  her  six  children, 
who  will  wait  for  tidings  from  him,  be  they  good 
or  ill.  From  Poland  in  gutteral  speech  comes  a  : 
"  God  be  with  you,  Bratye  (brother),  strong  oak 
of  our  village  forest  and  our  dependence  ;  the 
Virgin  protect  thee." 

The  Slovak  feels  his  Maryanka  pressing  her 
lips  against  his  while  she  sobs  out  her  lamentation, 
and  he,  to  keep  up  his  courage,  gives  a  "  strong 
pull  and  a  long  pull  "  at  the  bottle,  out  of  which 
his  white  native  palenka  gives  him  its  last  alco- 
holic greeting. 

Silent  are  the  usually  vociferous  Italians,  whose 
glorious  Mediterranean  is  blotted  out  by  the  som- 
bre gray  of  the  Atlantic ;  they  shall  not  soon 
again  see  the  full  orbed  moon  shining  upon  the 
bay  of  Naples,  sending  from  heaven  to  earth  a 
path  of  silver  upon  which  the  blessed  saints  go 
up  and  down.  In  the  silence  of  the  moment 
there  come  to  them  the  rattle  of  carts  and  the 
clatter  of  hoofs,  the  soft  voice  of  a  serenade  and 
then  the  sweet  scented  silence  of  an  Italian  night. 
They  all  think,  even  if  they  have  never  thought 


40     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

much  before ;  for  the  moment  is  as  solemn  as 
when  the  padre  came  with  his  censer  and  holy 
water,  or  when  the  acolytes  rang  the  bells,  me- 
chanically, on  the  way  to  some  death-bed. 

It  is  all  solemn,  in  spite  of  the  band  which 
strikes  the  well-known  notes  of  "  Lieb  Vater- 
land,  magst  ruhig  sein,"  and  makes  merrier 
music  each  moment  to  check  the  tears  and  to 
heal  the  newly  made  wounds.  They  try  to  be 
brave  now,  struggling  against  homesickness  and 
fear,  until  their  faces  pale,  and  one  by  one  they 
are  driven  down  into  the  hold  to  suffer  the  pangs 
of  the  damned  in  the  throes  of  a  complication  of 
agonies  for  which  as  yet,  no  pills  or  powders 
have  brought  soothing. 

But  when  the  sun  shines  upon  the  Atlantic, 
and  dries  the  deck  space  allotted  to  the  steerage 
passengers,  they  will  come  out  of  the  hold  one  by 
one,  wrapped  in  the  company's  gray  blankets ; 
pitiable  looking  objects,  ill-kempt  and  ill-kept. 
Stretched  upon  the  deck  nearest  the  steam  pipes, 
they  await  the  return  of  the  life  which  seemed 
"  clean  gone "  out  of  them. — It  is  at  this  time 
that  cabin  passengers  from  their  spacious 
deck  will  look  down  upon  them  in  pity  and  dis- 
may, getting  some  sport  from  throwing  sweet- 
meats and  pennies  among  the  hopeless  looking 
mass,  out  of  which  we  shall  have  to  coin  our 
future  citizens,  from  among  whom  will  arise 
fathers  and  mothers  of  future  generations. 


THE  FELLOWSHIP  of  The  STEERAGE  41 

This  practice  of  looking  down  into  the  steerage 
holds  all  the  pleasures  of  a  slumming  expedition 
with  none  of  its  hazards  of  contamination ;  for 
the  barriers  which  keep  the  classes  apart  on  a 
modern  ocean  liner  are  as  rigid  as  in  the  most 
stratified  society,  and  nowhere  else  are  they  more 
artificial  or  more  obtrusive.  A  matter  of  twenty 
dollars  lifts  a  man  into  a  cabin  passenger  or  con- 
demns him  to  the  steerage  ;  gives  him  the  chance 
to  be  clean,  to  breathe  pure  air,  to  sleep  on  spot- 
less linen  and  to  be  served  courteously ;  or  to  be 
pushed  into  a  dark  hold  where  soap  and  water 
are  luxuries,  where  bread  is  heavy  and  soggy, 
meat  without  savour  and  service  without  courtesy. 
The  matter  of  twenty  dollars  makes  one  man  a 
menace  to  be  examined  every  day,  driven  up  and 
down  slippery  stairs  and  exposed  to  the  winds 
and  waves ;  but  makes  of  the  other  man  a  pet, 
to  be  coddled,  fed  on  delicacies,  guarded  against 
draughts,  lifted  from  deck  to  deck  and  nursed 
with  gentle  care. 

The  average  steerage  passenger  is  not  envious. 
His  position  is  part  of  his  lot  in  life ;  the  ship  is 
just  like  Russia,  Austria,  Poland  or  Italy.  The 
cabin  passengers  are  the  lords  and  ladies,  the 
sailors  and  officers  are  the  police  and  the  army, 
while  the  captain  is  the  king  or  czar.  So  they 
are  merry  when  the  sun  shines  and  the  porpoises 
roll,  when  far  away  a  sail  shines  white  in  the 


42     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

sunlight  or  the  trailing  smoke  of  a  steamer  tells 
of  other  wanderers  over  the  deep. 

"  Here,  Slovaks,  bestir  yourselves ;  let's  sing 
the  song  of  the  '  Little  red  pocket-book '  or  *  The 
gardener's  wife  who  cried.'  'Too  sad?'  you 
say  ?  Then  let's  sing  about  the  '  Red  beer  and 
the  white  cakes.'  "  So  they  sing  : 

"Brothers,  brothers,  who'll  drink  the  beer, 
Brothers,  brothers,  when  we  are  not  here  ? 
Our  children  they  will  drink  it  then 
When  we  are  no  more  living  men. 
Beer,  beer,  in  glass  or  can, 
Always,  always  finds  its  man." 

Other  Slavs  from  Southern  mountains,  sing 
their  stirring  war  song  : 

"  Out  there,  out  there  beyond  the  mountains, 
Where  tramps  the  foaming  steed  of  war, 
Old  Jugo  calls  his  sons  afar ; 
To  aid  !     To  aid  !  in  my  old  age 
Defend  me  from  the  foeman's  rage. 

"  Out  there,  out  there  beyond  the  mountains 
My  children  follow  one  and  all, 
Where  Nikita  your  Prince  doth  call ; 
And  steep  anew  in  Turkish  gore 
The  sword  Czar  Dushan  flashed  of  yore, 
Out  there,  out  there  beyond  the  mountains." 

If  the  merriment  rises  to  the  proper  pitch, 
there  will  be  dancing  to  the  jerky  notes  of  an 


THE  FELLOWSHIP  of  The  STEERAGE  43 

harmonica  or  accordion ;  for  no  emigrant  ship 
ever  sailed  without  one  of  them  on  board. 
The  Germans  will  have  a  waltz  upon  a  limited 
scale,  while  the  Poles  dance  a  mazurka,  and  the 
Magyar  attempts  a  wild  czardas  which  invariably 
lands  him  against  the  railing ;  for  it  needs  steady 
feet  as  well  as  a  steadier  floor  than  the  back  of 
this  heaving,  rolling  monster. 

Men  and  women  from  other  corners  of  the 
Slav  world  will  be  reminded  of  the  spinning  room 
or  of  some  village  tavern  ;  and  joining  hands  will 
sing  with  appropriate  motions  this,  not  disa- 
greeable song,  to  Katyushka  or  Susanka,  or 
whatever  may  be  the  name  of  this  "  Honey- 
mouth." 

"  We  are  dancing,  we  are  dancing, 

Dancing  twenty-two ; 
Mary  dances  in  this  Kolo, 

Mary  sweet  and  true ; 
What  a  honey  mouth  has  Mary, 

Oh  !  what  joyful  bliss  ! 
Rather  than  all  twenty-two 
I  would  Mary  kiss." 

Greeks,  Servians,  Bulgarians,  Magyars,  Italians 
and  Slovaks  laugh  at  one  another's  antics  and 
while  listening  to  the  strange  sounds,  are  begin- 
ning to  enter  into  a  larger  fellowship  than  they 
ever  enjoyed  ;  for  so  close  as  this  many  of  them 
never  came  without  the  hand  upon  the  hilt  or  the 
finger  upon  the  trigger. 


44     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

When  Providence  is  generous  and  grants  a 
quiet  evening,  the  merriment  will  grow  louder 
and  louder,  drowning  the  murmur  of  the  sea  and 
silencing  the  sorrows  of  the  yesterday  and  the 
fears  for  the  morrow. 

"  Yes,  brothers,  we  are  travelling  on  to  America, 
the  land  of  hope  ;  let  us  be  merry.  Where  are 
you  going,  Czeska  Holka?"  (a  pet  name  for  a 
Bohemian  girl).  "  To  Chicago,  to  service,  and 
soon,  I  hope,  to  matrimony;  that's  what  they 
say,  that  you  can  get  married  in  America  with- 
out a  dowry  and  without  much  trouble."  Ah, 
yes ;  and  get  unmarried  again  without  much 
trouble;  but  of  this  fact  she  is  blissfully  ig- 
norant. "  Where  are  you  going,  signer  ?  "  "  Ah, 
I  am  going  to  Mulberry  Street ;  great  city,  yes, 
Mulberry  Street,  great  city."  "  Polak,  where  are 
you  going?"  "  Kellisland."  "Where  do  you 
say  ? yi  "  Kellisland,  where  stones  are  and  big 
sea."  "  Yes,  yes,  I  know  now :  Kelly's  Island 
in  'Ohio.  Fine  place  for  you,  Polak ;  powder 
blast  and  white  limestone  dust,  yet  a  fine  sea  and 
a  fine  life." 

All  of  them  are  going  somewhere  to  some  one  ; 
not  quite  strangers  they ;  some  one  has  crossed 
the  sea  before  them.  They  are  drawn  by  thou- 
sands of  magnets  and  they  will  draw  others 
after  them. 

We  have  all  become  good  comrades ;  for 
fellowship  is  easily  begotten  by  the  fellows  in 


THE  FELLOWSHIP  of  The  STEERAGE  45 

the  same  ship,  especially  in  the  steerage,  where 
no  barriers  exist  and  where  no  introductions  are 
possible  or  necessary.  I  am  sharing  many  con- 
fidences ;  of  young  women  who  go  to  meet 
their  lovers ;  of  young  men  who  go  to  make 
their  fortunes ;  of  bankrupts  who  have  fled  the 
heavy  arm  of  the  law  ;  of  women  hiding  moral 
taint ;  of  countless  ones  who  are  hiding  grave 
physical  infirmities  ;  and  of  some  who  have  lost 
faith  in  God  and  men,  in  law  and  justice. 

Yet  most  of  them  believe  with  a  simpler  faith 
than  our  own ;  God  is  real  to  them  and  His 
providence  stretches  over  the  seas.  No  morning, 
no  matter  how  tumultuous  the  waves,  but  the 
Russian  Jews  will  put  on  their  phylacteries, 
and  kissing  the  sacred  fringes  which  they  wear 
upon  their  breasts,  will  turn  towards  the  East 
and  the  rising  Sun,  to  where  their  holy  temple 
stood. 

Rarely  will  a  Slav  or  Italian  go  to  bed  with- 
out committing  himself  to  the  special  care  of 
some  patron  saint. 

Vice  there  is,  crude,  rough  vice,  down  here  in 
the  steerage.  Yes,  they  drink  vodka, — even  that 
rarely ;  but  up  in  the  cabin  they  drink  cham- 
pagne and  Kentucky  whiskies,  the  same  devils 
with  other  names.  Seldom  do  the  steerage  pas- 
sengers gamble — a  friendly  game  of  cards  per- 
haps, here  and  there  ;  while  up  in  the  cabin, 
from  sunlight  until  dawn,  poker  chips  are  piled 


46     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

and  pass  to  and  fro  among  daintily  attired 
men  and  women.  There  are  rough  jests  in  this 
steerage,  and  scant  courtesy  ;  but  virtue  is  as 
precious  here  as  there,  although  kept  under 
tremendous  temptation.  I  have  crossed  the 
ocean  hither  and  thither,  often  in  the  steerage, 
more  often  in  the  cabin ;  and  I  have  found 
gentlemen  in  dirty  homespun  in  the  one  place, 
and  in  the  other  supposed  gentlemen  who  were 
but  beasts,  although  they  had  lackeys  to  at- 
tend them,  and  suites  of  rooms  in  which  to 
make  luxurious  a  useless  existence.  The  steer- 
age brings  virtue  and  vice  in  the  rough.  A 
dollar  might  not  be  safe,  and  yet  as  safe  as  a 
whole  bank  up  in  the  cabin  ;  the  steerage  might 
steal  a  loaf  of  white  bread  or  a  tempting  cake, 
but  it  has  not  yet  learned  how  to  corner  the 
wheat  market ;  the  men  in  the  steerage  might 
be  tempted  to  steal  a  ride  upon  a  railroad,  but 
in  the  cabin  I  have  met  rascals  who  had 
stolen  whole  railroads,  yet  were  called  "  Captains 
of  Industry." 

Down  in  the  steerage  there  is  a  faith  in  the 
future,  and  in  the  despair  which  often  over- 
whelms them,  I  needed  but  to  whisper:  "Be 
patient,  this  seems  like  Hell,  but  it  will  soon 
seem  to  you  like  Heaven." 

Yes,  this  Heaven  is  coming ;  coming  down 
almost  from  above,  on  yonder  fringe  of  the  sea, 
for  far  away  trails  the  low  lying  smoke  of  the 


THE  FELLOWSHIP  of  The  STEERAGE  47 

pilot  boat,  and  but  a  little  farther  off  is — land — 
land.  None  but  the  shipwrecked  and  the 
emigrants,  these  way-farers  who  come  to  save 
and  be  saved,  know  the  joy  of  that  note  which 
goes  from  lip  to  lip  as  it  echoes  and  reechoes 
in  thirty  languages,  yet  with  the  one  word  of 
throbbing  joy, — land — land — AMERICA. 


IV 

LAND,  HO ! 

THE  gay  spirits  soon  flag  when  land  is  her- 
alded ;  for  Ellis  Island  is  ahead,  with  its  uncer- 
tainties, and  the  men  and  women  who  were  the 
merriest  and  who  most  often  went  to  the  bar, 
thus  trying  to  forget,  now  are  sober,  and  reflect. 
The  troubled  ones  are  usually  marked  by  their 
restless  walk  and  by  their  eagerness  to  seek  the 
confidences  of  those  who  have  tested  the  temper 
of  the  law  in  this  unknown  Eldorado. 

Not  long  ago,  on  one  of  the  ships  in  which  I 
sailed,  there  was  in  the  steerage,  a  monk,  who 
neither  walked  nor  talked  like  one.  He  shunned 
me,  not  because  of  my  heresies,  but  because  of 
my  Latin,  and  although  he  mumbled  out  of  a 
prayer-book  and  unskillfully  counted  his  beads, 
I  knew  that  "  The  devil  a  monk  was  he." 

On  the  eve  of  the  great  day  of  landing,  he 
was  pacing  the  deck,  evidently  in  an  unrever- 
ential  mood,  and  I  too  was  there,  being  one  of 
those  who  prefer  the  biting  wind  of  the  night 
to  the  polluted  air  of  the  steerage.  He  came 
close  to  me  as  we  walked,  and  hesitatingly 
asked  me  in  a  French  to  which  clung  a  pe- 
culiar dialect  never  spoken  in  monasteries, 

48 


LAND,  HO!  49 

whether  I  had  been  in  America  before.  When 
I  replied  in  the  affirmative,  he  inquired  all  about 
the  examination  of  baggage  and  of  men,  and 
when  I  told  him  how  strict  it  is,  that  nothing  is 
hid  from  the  lynx  eyes  of  the  custom-house 
officials,  and  that  nothing  is  sacred  to  them,  not 
even  the  body  of  a  monk,  he  grew  visibly 
excited 

Stealthily  he  drew  from  under  the  folds  of  his 
cassock,  a  stone,  a  large,  brilliant,  tempting 
diamond,  and  said :  "  You  may  have  that."  As  I 
took  it  between  my  fingers,  I  detected  traces  of 
the  torn  rim  of  its  setting,  and  passed  it  back 
into  the  trembling  hand  of  his  "  Reverence.'1 
"  You  needn't  be  afraid  of  that,"  he  said  ;  "  I  am 
one  of  the  monks  driven  out  of  France,  and  I  am 
taking  the  treasures  of  the  Brotherhood  over.  I 
am  afraid  of  the  high  duty  and  it  will  be  cheaper 
for  me  to  give  you  that  diamond  which  is  a 
pendant  from  the  jewels  of  the  Virgin,  than  to  pay 
for  what  I  have ;  that  is,  if  you  will  help  me  to 
pass  this  little  bag  safely  in."  With  this  he  drew 
aside  his  cassock  and  fumbling  in  the  folds 
brought  to  light  a  little  bag  which  he  would 
have  handed  to  me,  but  I  assured  him  that  I  was 
not  a  smuggler  even  for  pious  purposes,  and 
after  darting  at  me  an  impious  glance,  he  disap- 
peared into  the  steerage. 

The  next  day  at  Quarantine,  a  messenger  boy 
of  unusual  size  came  on  board  and  calling  out 


50     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

the  names  of  a  rather  large  number  of  steerage 
passengers  handed  them  telegrams  which  were 
written  in  English  and  were  rather  suspiciously 
vague. — "  Pavel  Moticzka, — Ivan  Kovaloff, — 
Isaac  Goldberg,"  and  last, — "  Jaques  Rosen- 
stein."  My  friend  the  monk  nearly  jumped  out 
of  his  cassock  to  reach  for  his  message,  and  the 
"  Boy,"  who  made  most  remarkable  haste  for  a 
telegraph  messenger,  slipped  a  pair  of  hand- 
cuffs where  only  rosaries  hung ;  and  a  Jewish 
jeweller's  clerk  from  Paris,  who  was  running 
away  with  the  best  part  of  his  employer's  dia- 
monds,— was  in  the  toils  of  the  law. 

Some  yeacs  ago  when  the  steerage  of  the 
Hamburg  American  Line  had  not  been  made 
even  partially  decent  by  our  stringent  immigra- 
tion laws,  over  500  steerage  passengers,  booked 
for  the  Furst  Bismark,  at  that  time  the  swiftest 
boat  of  the  line,  were,  without  explanation  or 
notification,  stowed  away  in  a  freight  boat  sched- 
uled to  cross  in  twelve  days,  but  never  having 
actually  made  the  trip  in  less  than  sixteen  days. 

The  quarters  were  very  close  but  the  number 
of  passengers  was  not  excessively  large,  the 
weather  was  favourable,  and  blissfully  ignorant 
of  the  slowness  of  the  ship,  we  were  compara- 
tively happy. 

We  were  divided  about  equally  into  Russian 
Jews,  Slavs  and  Italians,  and  there  was  very 
little  choice  so  far  as  comradeship  was  con* 


WILL  THEY  LET  ME   IN? 

It  Is  a  serious  matter  to  many  a  man  who  has  invested  his  all  in  a  ticket 
for  the  New  World  to  face  tlifc  possibility  of  rejection. 


LAND,  HO!  51 

cerned.  The  passengers  were  all  fairly  dirty,  the 
Italians  being  easily  in  the  lead,  with  the  Rus- 
sian Jews  a  good  second,  and  the  Slavs  as  clean 
as  circumstances  allowed. 

The  Italians  were  from  the  South  of  Italy  and 
had  lost  the  romance  of  their  native  land  but 
not  the  fragrance  of  the  garlic.  They  quarrelled 
somewhat  loudly  and  gesticulated  wildly;  but 
were  good  neighbours  during  those  sixteen  days. 
They  were  shy  and  not  easily  lured  into  confi- 
dences by  one  who  knew  their  language  but 
poorly,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  knew  their 
country  well  and  'oved  it.  In  sixteen  days  the 
average  American  has  a  chance  to  discover  at 
least  one  thing  which  he  has  found  it  hard  to 
believe ;  that  all  Italians  are  not  alike,  that  they 
do  not  look  alike,  and  that  they  are  not  all 
Anarchists.  When  some  relationship  was  es- 
tablished between  us,  and  I  had  to  serve  as 
the  link  among  the  three  races,  we  had  a 
grand  "  Festa "  to  which  the  Slavs  contributed 
some  gutteral  songs  and  clumsy  dances,  and 
the  Italians,  sleight  of  hand  performances  which 
made  them  appear  still  more  uncanny  to  the 
Slavs. 

They  also  supplied  a  Marionette  theatre,  of  the 
Punch  and  Judy  show  variety,  and  "  last  but  not 
least,"  music  from  a  hurdy-gurdy  which  played 
the  dulcet  notes  of  "  Cavalliero  Rusticana  "  and 
a  dashing  tune  about  "  Marghareta,  Marghareta.' 


52     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

"Signers  and  Signorinas,"  said  Pietro,  after  he 
had  played  all  the  tunes  of  his  limited  repertoire, 
"  I  have  the  great  honour  of  presenting  to  you 
the  national  anthem  of  the  great  American 
country  to  which  we  are  travelling."  He  turned 
the  crank,  and  out  came, — the  ragtime  notes  of 
"  Ta — ra — ra — boom — de — a." 

The  last  number  on  the  program  was  a  song 
by  a  Russian  Jewess,  a  woman  whose  beauty 
was  marred  by  bleached  hair  which  had  grown 
rusty,  and  by  a  complexion  upon  which  rouge 
and  powder  had  done  their  worst.  Her  voice 
which  was  strong  rather  than  melodious,  had 
in  it  an  element  of  artificiality  evidently  begot- 
ten on  the  stage.  She  at  once  became  the  star 
among  our  entertainers,  and  though  her  culture 
was  superficial,  she  was  by  far  the  best  com- 
pany for  me. 

Her  parents,  she  told  me,  had  been  well  to 
do  Jews  in  a  market  town  in  Russia.  They 
had  broken  away  from  many  of  the  observ- 
ances and  traditions  of  their  religion,  they  and 
their  children  followed  all  the  latest  fashions, 
a  governess  imported  from  France  brought 
with  her  Paul  de  Kock's  novels  and  other 
elevating  (?)  Parisian  literature  ;  music  teachers 
came,  who  discovered  in  the  only  daughter 
a  voice  which  of  course,  had  to  be  cultivated 
in  Vienna.  There  were  concerts  which  the 
father's  money  arranged,  a  few  glowing  press 


LAND,  HO !  53 

notices  at  so  much  a  line,  and  finally  the  fruit- 
less struggle  to  appear  in  opera. 

Then  came  one  of  those  Anti-Semitic  riots, 
those  brutal  outpourings  of  human  hate  which 
she  was  unable  to  describe.  All  she  could  say 
over  and  over  again  was,  "  Strashno,  Strashno," 
"  it  was  terrible,  terrible."  The  house  in  which 
•she  had  lived  was  a  wreck,  her  father  beaten  to 
death,  and  she — she  could  not  say  it ;  but  I 
knew.  She  told  of  women  whose  mutilated 
bodies  were  torn  open,  and  of  children  whose 
heads  were  beaten  together  until  they  were  a 
bleeding  mass.  Yes,  indeed,  it  was  "  Strashno, 
Strashno,"  terrible,  terrible. 

Somewhat  early  in  her  girlhood,  a  clerk  in  her 
father's  store  "  had  looked  upon  her,  and  loved 
her  "  with  a  youth's  ardour  ;  but  she  had  scorned 
him,  as  well  she  might  scorn  this  uncultured, 
stupid  looking  son  of  Abraham.  Again  and  again 
he  asked  her  to  be  his  wife,  until  through  her  en- 
treaty, her  father  drove  him  out  of  the  store.  She 
told  me  much  of  her  life  and  perhaps  many  things 
which  she  told  me  were  not  true.  I  knew  for 
instance,  that  she  had  not  sung  before  the  Czar 
of  Russia,  that  Hanslick  the  great  musical  critic 
of  Vienna  did  not  predict  for  her  a  Patti's  fame 
and  fortune ;  nor  did  I  believe  that  a  young 
millionaire  in  Berlin  blew  out  his  brains  because 
she  would  not  marry  him.  But  I  did  believe  that 
the  poor  clerk  went  to  New  York,  that  he  had 


54    ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

worked  day  and  night  in  a  sweat  shop  pressing 
cloaks,  that  out  of  his  earnings  he  had  supported 
her  in  the  vain  struggle  to  attain  Grand  Opera, 
and  that  now  she  was  on  her  way  to  reward  his 
faithfulness  and  become  his  wife. 

"  What  is  it  like,  this  America  ?  "  "  What  kind 
of  life  awaits  one  on  the  East-side  ?  "  "  What 
social  status  has  a  cloak  presser  in  New  York?" 
"  What  chance  is  there  for  one  to  reach  the  goal 
of  Grand  Opera?"  These  and  other  questions 
she  hurled  at  me  while  the  line  upon  the  horizon 
grew  clearer,  and  the  hearts  of  men  and  women 
heavy  from  expectation. 

On  this  ship  too,  Susanka,  a  Slovak  girl  nursed 
her  way  across  the  Atlantic,  giving  food  to  a  lit- 
tle Magyar  baby  which  she  despised  ;  and  while 
she  rocked  the  restless  little  one  to  sleep  and 
sang  her  Slavic  lullaby,  "  Hi-u,  Hi-u,  Hi-u-shke- 
e-e" — one  could  see  in  her  heavy  face  her  heart's 
hunger  for  her  own  child.  "  Oh  !  Pany  velko- 
mosny  (mighty  sir),  my  little  child !  I  had  to  leave 
it  with  a  stara  baba  (old  woman)  and  it  was  gray, 
ashen  gray  when  I  left  it,  and  it  will  die,  it  will 
die !  "  and  she  grew  frantic  in  her  grief  as  she 
rocked  the  Magyar  child  to  and  fro,  "  Hi-u,  Hi-u, 
Hi-u-shke-e-e-e."  "Who  was  to  blame,  Su- 
sanka?" The  look  of  pain  changed  to  one  of 
fiery  anger  as  she  sent  back  across  the  sea,  a 
curse,  long  and  terrible,  against  her  betrayer. 

Yes,  those  are  heavy  hours  and  long,  on  that 


LAND,  HO  !  55 

day  when  the  ship  is  circled  by  the  welcoming 
gulls,  and  the  fire-ship  is  passed,  while  the  chains 
rattle  and  the  baggage  is  piled  on  the  deck. 
"Will  they  let  me  in,  signer?"  "Why  should 
they  not,  Antonio  ?  "  "  Ah  1  signer,  I  have  not  al- 
ways been  a  free  man.  They  held  me  in  jail 
for  four  years.  Will  they  know  it  in  America  ? 
.1  stabbed  a  man, — yes,  signer." 

"  Will  they  let  us  in,  Guter  Herrleben  ?  "  anx- 
iously asks  Yankev  :  his  wife  Gietel  and  six  chil- 
dren are  with  him  and  one  of  the  boys  lies  motion- 
less upon  the  hatch,  pale,  worn  and  almost  gone. 
"  Consumption  ?  yes  ;  he  was  so  well,  but  we  were 
smuggled  over  and  driven  by  the  gendarmes, 
and  had  to  be  out  in  the  damp,  and  he  caught 
cold  and  a  cough  came  and  you  can  see,  Guter 
Herrleben,  quick  consumption  1 " 

Yankev,  and  Gietel  his  wife,  had  an  appalling 
story  to  tell,  and  I  listened  to  it  as  we  squatted 
on  deck  under  the  twinkling  stars.  The  moon 
shone  in  silvery  splendour  upon  the  quiet  water, 
and  I  wondered  why  the  sea  did  not  grow  angry, 
the  constellations  pale,  and  why  the  moon  did 
not  become  red  like  blood  at  the  horror  of  it  all — 
a  horror  which  never  can  be  told.  Imagine  an 
Easter  night,  a  night  when  Yankev  and  Gietel 
celebrated  the  liberation  of  Israel  from  Egyptian 
bondage.  On  the  same  night  their  Russian 
neighbours  were  celebrating  the  liberation  of  the 
human  race  from  the  power  of  death.  The  syna- 


56     ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

gogue  service  was  over.  They  had  told  the  story 
of  Israel's  passing  through  the  Red  Sea,  and  of 
the  perishing  of  Pharoah's  horsemen ;  Yankev 
had  come  home  to  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread 
and  bitter  herbs ;  the  neighbours  had  been  to  the 
church  where  until  midnight,  in  darkness  and 
silence,  they  mourned  at  the  tomb  of  the  slain 
Christ.  Then  with  the  passing  of  the  long  and 
silent  night  they  went  from  street  to  street  shout- 
ing :  "  Christ  is  risen,  Christ  is  risen,  Christ  is 
risen,  indeed."  But  the  mob  came  upon  the  de- 
fenseless home  plundering  and  burning  all  in  its 
fury,  although  mercifully  sparing  the  lives  of  the 
now  homeless  and  penniless  family.  Others  fared 
worse,  for  they  had  no  money  with  which  to  bribe, 
while  their  daughters  were  older  and  good  to 
look  upon.  It  was  a  little  place  and  just  a  little 
pogrom.  It  was  not  written  about  nor  pro- 
tested against ;  but  what  would  have  been  the 
use? 

Dumb  from  agony  we  sat  there  and  I  had  to 
breathe  back  into  them  the  faith  which  they  had 
almost  lost,  and  the  courage  which  had  almost 
left  them  ;  a  faith  and  courage  which  I  myself  did 
not  possess.  In  the  peace  of  the  night  I  could 
hear  only  the  terror  of  the  voice  of  the  Lord  say- 
ing :  "  Vengeance  is  Mine."  The  gentle  Nazarene 
who  came  in  love  to  conquer  by  love,  I  could 
scarcely  see,  and  I  yearned  to  make  the  Psalmist's 
prayer  my  own.  "  Blessed  be  the  Lord  God 


LAND,  HO !  57 

which  teacheth  my  hands  to  war  and  my  fingers 
to  fight." 

That  night  and  many  another  last  night  on 
board  of  ship,  I  listened  to  the  stories  of  men 
and  women  who  were  fleeing  from  the  terror  of 
Russia's  law.  Russians  who  had  wrought  in 
secret,  who  had  planned  great  things  and  who 
had  risked  everything — BogdanofT,  Philipoff, 
LermontofT,  Lehrman,  Loewenstern.  Jews  and 
Gentiles  who  had  struck  out  in  their  blind  fury, 
who  had  felt  the  terror  of  the  law  and  the  greater 
terror  of  taking,  or  trying  to  take,  human  life. 
Some  guilty,  some  innocent ;  all  of  them  caught 
in  the  same  net. 

Characteristic  is  the  story  of  a  Warsaw  mer- 
chant who  sailed  with  me  on  my  last  journey. 
On  the  evening  of  the  2ist  of  April,  1906,  he 
went  to  a  dentist  to  have  some  work  done.  He 
went  in  the  evening  because  he  was  busy  in  the 
daytime,  and  when  he  arrived  the  police  were 
searching  the  house ;  after  which  all  the  inmates, 
dentist  and  patients,  were  taken  to  the  police 
station  and  cast  into  prison.  Two  hundred  and 
fifty  persons  were  together  in  a  room  large 
enough  for  twenty.  The  odours  were  frightful,  as 
in  common  with  all  Russian  prisons  there  were 
no  toilet  conveniences  outside  of  that  room,  in 
which  for  three  days  they  were  left.  After  brib- 
ing the  officials,  twenty  fortunate  men,  my  in- 
formant among  them,  were  given  another  room. 


58     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

Nine  weeks  he  remained  there  utterly  uncon- 
scious of  the  reason  for  his  detention ;  and  only 
after  the  hard  and  faithful  struggle  of  his  wife 
was  he  released, — without  an  apology,  to  find  his 
business  ruined  and  only  sufficient  money  left  to 
go  to  America. 

On  the  same  ship  I  met  the  widow  of  a  Jewish 
physician,  who  was  shot  down  in  the  act  of  bind- 
ing the  wounds  of  those  fallen  in  the  uprising  of 
Moscow.  Binding  the  wounds  of  soldiers  and 
revolutionists  alike,  he  was  shot  in  the  back  by 
a  police  lieutenant  who  afterwards  was  promoted 
to  a  captaincy. 

No,  it  is  not  easy  to  travel  in  the  steerage ; 
not  because  there  is  not  room  enough,  nor  air 
enough,  nor  food  enough,  although  that  is  all 
true ;  but  because  it  is  hard  to  believe  down 
there  that  the  God  of  Israel  is  not  dead,  nor  His 
arm  shortened,  if  not  broken,  like  those  of  the 
Greek  deities. 

Yet  they  still  have  faith  in  Him,  these  children 
of  His,  who  have  waited  for  the  fulfillment  of 
His  promises.  They  still  wait,  although  "  Jeru- 
salem the  golden  "  is  a  far  away  dream,  and  they 
are  scattered  wanderers  over  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Friday  night,  with  the  coming  of  the  first  star, 
all  those  who  believed,  met,  to  voice  their  faith 
in  Jehovah. 

In  a  corner  of  the  steerage  quarters,  while  the 
eyes  of  the  Gentiles  looked  inquisitively  on,  they 


LAND,  HO!  59 

turned  towards  Zion,  and  lifting  up  their  voices, 
greeted  the  Sabbath  :  "  Come,  my  beloved,  thou 
Sabbath  bride,"  "Lcho  dody  L  Crass  Calo." 
They  sang  this  one  joyous  song  of  Israel,  and 
stretched  out  their  arms  as  if  to  press  this  spir- 
itual bride  to  their  rest-hungry  souls. 

They  do  not  doubt  that  Jehovah  will  guide  the 
destinies  of  Israel,  and  that  the  Sabbath  bride 
will  some  day  descend  upon  the  earth  to  abide 
forever,  bringing  rest  and  peace  to  the  Israel  of 
God. 

At  last  the  great  heart  of  the  ship  has  ceased 
its  mighty  throbbing,  and  but  a  gentle  tremor 
tells  that  its  life  has  not  all  been  spent  in  the  bat- 
tle with  wind  and  waves.  The  waters  are  of  a 
quieter  colour,  and  over  them  hovers  the  morning 
mist.  The  silence  of  the  early  dawn  is  broken 
only  by  the  sound  of  deep-chested  ferry-boats 
which  pass  into  the  mist  and  out  of  it,  like  giant 
monsters,  stalking  on  their  cross  beams  over  the 
deep.  The  steerage  is  awake  after  its  restless 
night  and  mutely  awaits  the  disclosures  of  its 
own  and  the  new  world's  secrets.  The  sound  of 
a  booming  gun  is  carried  across  the  hidden 
space,  and  faint  touches  of  flame  struggling 
through  the  gray,  are  the  sun's  answer  to  the 
salute  from  Governor's  Island.  The  morning 
breeze,  like  a  "  Dancing  Psaltress,"  moves  gently 
over  the  glassy  surface  of  the  water,  lifts  the  fog 
higher  and  higher,  tearing  it  into  a  thousand 


60    ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

fleecy  shreds,  and  the  far  things  have  come  near 
and  the  hidden  things  have  been  revealed.  The 
sky  line  straight  ahead,  assaulted  by  a  thousand 
towering  shafts,  looking  like  a  challenge  to  the 
strong,  and  a  warning  to  the  weak,  makes  all  of 
us  tremble  from  an  unknown  fear. 

The  steerage  is  still  mute  ;  it  looks  to  the  left 
at  the  populous  shore,  to  the  right  at  the  green 
stretches  of  Long  Island,  and  again  straight 
ahead  at  the  mighty  city.  Slowly  the  ship  glides 
into  the  harbour,  and  when  it  passes  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Statue  of  Liberty,  the  silence  is 
broken,  and  a  thousand  hands  are  outstretched 
in  greeting  to  this  new  divinity  into  whose  keep- 
ing they  now  entrust  themselves. 

Some  day  a  great  poet  will  arise  among  us, 
who,  catching  the  inspiration  of  that  moment 
will  be  able  to  put  into  words  these  surging 
emotions  ;  who  will  be  great  enough  to  feel  beat- 
ing against  his  own  soul  and  give  utterance  to, 
the  thousand  varying  notes  which  are  felt  and 
never  sounded. 

On  this  very  ship  are  women  who  have  left  the 
burdens  which  crippled  them,  and  now  hope  to 
walk  erect ;  who  have  fled  from  the  rough,  pol- 
luting hands  of  persecuting  mobs,  that  they  may 
be  able  to  guard  their  virtue  and  have  it  guarded 
by  gallant  men.  Here  are  hundreds  of  Slavs 
who  never  knew  aught  but  the  yoke  of  czar  or 
other  potentate,  whose  minds  have  been  en- 


LAND,  HO!  61 

thralled  by  a  galling  autocracy,  and  whose  closed 
eyes  have  never  been  permitted  to  see  their  own 
downtrodden  strength.  Now  they  shall  have 
the  opportunity  to  prove  themselves  and  show 
the  nobility  of  a  peasant  race. 

Here  are  Italians  from  shores  where  classic  art 
is  stored,  and  the  air  is  soft  and  full  of  melody ; 
yet  they  were  left  uncouth,  rough  and  unhewn. 
They  come  to  a  rougher  but  freer  air,  that  they 
may  grow  into  a  gentler,  stronger,  nobler  man- 
hood and  womanhood. 

Melancholy  Jews  whose  feet  never  knew  a  safe 
abiding  place,  are  here,  and  their  hope  is  that 
they  may  find  the  peace  which  went  out  from 
their  race,  when  Jerusalem  was  laid  waste  and 
they  were  scattered  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth. 

He  who  thinks  that  these  people  scent  but  the 
dollars  which  lie  in  our  treasury,  is  mightily 
mistaken,  and  he  who  says  that  they  come 
without  ideals  has  no  knowledge  of  the  children 
of  men. 

I  found  myself  close  to  hundreds  of  these 
people,  closest  to  the  Russian  Jews  who  most 
excited  my  sympathies ;  and  one  day  when  they 
heard  that  I  had  been  in  Bialistok,  Kishinef 
and  Odessa,  that  I  knew  the  horror  of  it  all  and 
that  I  sympathized  with  them,  they  crowded 
around  me  almost  like  wild  animals.  What 
did  they  ask  for  above  everything?  Money? 


62     ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

No.  The  one  loud  cry  was  for  a  speech  about 
America.  "  Preach  to  us,"  they  said,  "  preach  to 
us  about  America."  It  was  a  polyglot  sermon 
which  I  preached  that  Sunday  from  the  cov- 
ered hatch  which  was  my  pulpit,  and  when 
I  spoke  to  them  of  their  new  home  and  their 
new  duties,  they  cheered  me  to  the  echo. 

I  have  passed  through  this  gateway  more 
than  ten  times ;  I  have  sounded  as  far  as  a  man 
can  sound,  the  souls  of  men  and  women,  and 
I  have  found  them  tingling  from  emotions, 
akin  only  to  those  which  we  more  prosperous 
voyagers  shall  feel,  when  we  have  crossed  the 
last  sea  and  find  ourselves  in  the  presence  of 
the  great  Judge. 

Many  of  these  emigrants  expect  to  find 
more  liberty,  more  justice,  and  more  equitable 
law  than  we  ourselves  enjoy ;  they  imagine  that 
our  common  life  is  permeated  by  a  noble  ideal- 
ism ;  and  while  they  cannot  give  expression  to 
their  high  anticipations  they  feel  more  loftily 
than  we  think  them  capable  of  feeling.  Many 
a  time  I  have  heard  conversations  between  those 
who  had  read  about  America  and  those  who 
were  ignorant  of  its  life,  and  invariably  I  have 
had  to  keep  silence  ;  for  had  I  spoken  I  must 
have  destroyed  blessed  illusions.  From  the 
very  people  whom  we  call  Sabbath  breakers,  I 
have  heard  glowing  descriptions  of  an  ideal 
American  Sabbath,  and  from  men  to  whom  al- 


LAND,  HO!  63 

coholic  beverages  seemed  essential  to  life,  I 
have  heard  a  defense  of  laws  regulating  the  sale 
of  liquor.  If,  in  our  superficial  touch  with  them 
in  our  own  country,  we  find  them  materialistic 
and  dulled  to  what  we  call  our  higher  life,  they 
are  not  the  only  ones  at  fault 

Cabin  and  steerage  passengers  alike,  soon 
find  the  poetry  of  the  moment  disturbed ;  for 
the  quarantine  and  custom-house  officials  are 
on  board,  driving  away  the  tourist's  memories 
of  the  splendour  of  European  capitals  by  their 
inquisitiveness  as  to  his  purchases.  They  make 
him  solemnly  swear  that  he  is  not  a  smuggler, 
and  upon  landing,  immediately  proceed  to  prove 
that  he  is  one. 

The  steerage  passengers  have  before  them 
more  rigid  examinations  which  may  have  vast 
consequences ;  so  in  spite  of  the  joyous  notes 
of  the  band,  and  the  glad  greetings  shouted  to 
and  fro,  they  sink  again  into  awe-struck  and 
confused  silence.  When  the  last  cabin  passen- 
ger has  disappeared  from  the  dock,  the  immi- 
grants with  their  baggage  are  loaded  into 
barges  and  taken  to  Ellis  Island  for  their  final 
examination. 


AT  THE  GATEWAY 

THE  barges  on  which  the  immigrants  are 
towed  towards  the  island  are  of  a  somewhat  an- 
tiquated pattern  and  if  I  remember  rightly  have 
done  service  in  the  Castle  Garden  days,  and 
before  that  some  of  them  at  least  had  done  full 
service  for  excursion  parties  up  and  down  Long 
Island  Sound.  The  structure  towards  which  we 
sail  and  which  gradually  rises  from  the  sur- 
rounding sea  is  rather  imposing,  and  impresses 
one  by  its  utilitarian  dignity  and  by  its  plainly 
expressed  official  character. 

With  tickets  fastened  to  our  caps  and  to 
the  dresses  of  the  women,  and  with  our  own  bills 
of  lading  in  our  trembling  hands,  we  pass  between 
rows  of  uniformed  attendants,  and  under  the 
huge  portal  of  the  vast  hall  where  the  final 
judgment  awaits  us.  We  are  cheered  some- 
what by  the  fact  that  assistance  is  promised  to 
most  of  us  by  the  agents  of  various  National 
Immigrant  Societies  who  seem  both  watchful  and 
efficient. 

Mechanically  and  with  quick  movements  we 
are  examined  for  general  physical  defects  and 

64 


AT  THE  GATEWAY  65 

for  the  dreaded  trachoma,  an  eye  disease,  the 
prevalence  of  which  is  greater  in  the  imagina- 
tion of  some  statisticians  than  it  is  on  board  im- 
migrant vessels. 

From  here  we  pass  into  passageways  made 
by  iron  railings,  in  which  only  lately,  through 
the  intervention  of  a  humane  official,  benches 
have  been  placed,  upon  which,  closely  crowded, 
we  await  our  passing  before  the  inspectors. 

Already  a  sifting  process  has  taken  place  ;  and 
children  who  clung  to  their  mother's  skirts  have 
disappeared,  families  have  been  divided,  and 
those  remaining  intact,  cling  to  each  other  in  a 
really  tragic  fear  that  they  may  share  the  fate  of 
those  previously  examined. 

A  Polish  woman  by  my  side  has  suddenly 
become  aware  that  she  has  one  child  less  cling- 
ing to  her  skirts,  and  she  implores  me  with  ag- 
onizing cries,  to  bring  it  back  to  her.  In  a 
strange  world,  at  the  very  entrance  to  what  is 
to  be  her  home,  without  the  protection  of  her 
husband,  without  any  knowledge  of  the  Eng- 
lish language,  and  with  no  one  taking  the 
trouble  to  explain  to  her  the  reason,  the  child 
was  snatched  from  her  side.  Somewhere  it  is 
bitterly  crying  for  its  mother,  and  each  is  un- 
conscious of  the  other's  fate. 

"  Gdeye  moya  shena  "  (where  is  my  wife  ?)  an 
old  Slovak  cries  as  he  looks  wildly  about  for  her, 
whose  physique  was  suspected  of  being  below 


66     ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

the  normal  and  who  was  passed  on  for  further 
examination. 

A  Russian  youth,  stalwart  and  strong,  is  sepa- 
rated from  his  household  which  came  together 
to  settle  in  Dakota ;  but  now  he,  the  mainstay 
of  the  family,  is  gone  and  they  are  perplexed 
and  distracted. 

A  little  girl  scarcely  five  years  of  age,  cries  : 
"  Mitter,  mitter,  ich  will  zu  meiner  mitter  gehen  "  ; 
she  is  there  alone  and  uncomforted,  surrounded 
by  rough-looking  men,  while  not  far  away  her 
mother  is  working  herself  into  hysterics  because 
she  must  await  in  the  detention  room  the  su- 
preme decision. 

A  woman  with  three  children  has  two  of  them 
taken  from  her  because  they  are  suspected  of 
disease  and  found  to  be  afflicted  by  trachoma ; 
the  mother  also  has  the  disease,  but  her  husband, 
now  an  American  citizen,  comes  to  claim  her, 
and  she  passes  in  while  the  little  ones  are  held 
in  custody  by  the  immigration  authorities. 

One  by  one  we  pass  the  inspectors  ;  we  show 
our  money  and  answer  the  questions  which  are 
numerous  and  pertinent. 

The  average  immigrant  obeys  mechanically ; 
his  attitude  towards  the  inspector  being  one  of 
great  respect.  While  the  truth  is  not  always 
told,  many  of  the  lies  prepared  prove  both  in- 
efficient and  unnecessary. 

On  one  of  the  boats  very  recently  a  number 


AT  THE  GATEWAY  67 

of  young  women  were  imported  for  immoral  pur- 
poses, and  each  of  them  was  supposed  to  be  mar- 
ried to  the  attendant  agent  of  a  firm  which  con- 
ducts an  international  business.  The  young 
man  having  announced  himself  as  married  to 
the  woman  accompanying  him,  was  asked, 
"Where  were  you  married?"  "In  Paris." 
"Who  married  you?"  "  Pere  Abelard."  "When 
were  you  married?"  "The  fifteenth  of  May." 
"Were  your  wife's  parents  present?"  "Yes." 
Next  the  young  woman  was  questioned,  and 
announced  the  marriage  as  having  taken  place 
in  Brussels,  some  time  in  June,  and  that  she  is 
an  orphan.  The  case  is  very  plain,  and  both 
will  have  to  face  the  court  of  special  inquiry. 

A  young  Jewish  girl  who  really  escaped  the  tor- 
ment of  some  Russian  persecutions  conjures  up 
in  her  mind  a  relative  in  New  York  whose  name 
and  address  are  not  discovered,  and  the  more 
she  is  questioned  the  more  she  entangles  herself 
in  a  network  of  lies. 

A  dear  old  mother  is  held,  because  instead  of 
the  one  son  who  awaits  her,  she  has  announced 
three  or  four  sons  residing  here  ;  and  continued 
questioning  more  and  more  involves  her  in  use- 
less affirmation. 

The  examination  can  be  superficial  at  best  ; 
but  the  eye  has  been  trained  and  discoveries  are 
made  here,  which  seem  rather  remarkable. 

Four  ways   open  to  the   immigrant  after  he 


68     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

passes  the  inspector.  If  he  is  destined  for  New 
York  he  goes  straightway  down  the  stairs,  and 
there  his  friends  await  him  if  he  has  any  ;  and 
most  of  them  have.  If  his  journey  takes  him 
westward,  and  there  the  largest  percentage  goes, 
he  enters  a  large,  commodious  hall  to  the  right, 
where  the  money-changers  sit  and  the  trans- 
portation companies  have  their  offices.  If  he 
goes  to  the  New  England  states  he  turns  to  the 
left  into  a  room  which  can  scarcely  hold  those 
who  go  to  the  land  of  the  pilgrims  and  puritans. 
The  fourth  way  is  the  hardest  one  and  is  taken 
by  those  who  have  received  a  ticket  marked 
P.  C.  (Public  Charge),  which  sends  the  immi- 
grant to  the  extreme  left  where  an  official  sits, 
in  front  of  a  barred  gate  behind  which  is  the 
dreaded  detention-room. 

The  decision  one  way  or  the  other  must  be 
quickly  made,  and  the  immigrant  finds  himself 
in  a  jail-like  room  often  without  knowing  just 
why.  There  is  not  much  time  for  explanation. 

Imagine  a  room  filled  by  at  least  fifty  people, 
many  of  them  doomed  to  recross  the  terrible  sea 
and  to  be  landed  upon  strange  territory,  to  find 
the  way  unattended,  to  their  obscure  little,  village. 
When  they  arrive  there  they  are  usually  paupers 
with  a  stigma  resting  upon  them  ;  for  were  they 
not  rejected  in  America,  and  why?  Ah,  who 
knows  why ! 

Let  us  pass  through  this  room.     "  Brother, 


AT  THE  GATEWAY  69 

why  are  you  here?"  A  stalwart  Lettish  peasant 
boy  answers  demurely,  "  Because  I  haven't  money 
enough.  I  had  some  money  and  they  stole  it 
out  of  my  father's  pockets."  The  father  and 
the  boy  have  been  marked  by  the  inspector  as 
likely  to  become  a  public  charge,  because  they 
had  neither  money  in  their  pockets  nor  friends 
waiting  for  them.  A  matter  of  ten  or  twenty 
dollars  is  between  these  men  and  the  fulfillment 
of  all  their  desires. 

The  court  may  be  lenient,  but  the  father  is  old 
and  the  boy  young  and  it  is  more  than  probable 
that  they  will  both  end  their  days  on  the  rough 
Baltic,  where  society  now  is  as  turbulent  as  that 
northern  sea. 

A  Servian  peasant,  browned  by  the  hot  sun 
which  shone  upon  the  Danubian  plains  where 
he  lived,  edges  up  to  me,  for  he  hears  a  familiar 
Slavic  note  in  my  speech,  and  he  brings  this  bit- 
ter plaint.  "  How  far  I  have  travelled  from 
Budapest,  Vienna,  Berlin,  and  Hamburg.  I 
have  spent  all  my  money  and  now  it  looks  as  if 
I  must  go  back.  Must  I  go?  Tell  me."  The 
court  will  tell  him  to-morrow  that  he  has  passed 
the  dreaded  dead  line,  is  over  fifty  years  of  age, 
not  too  well  built,  used  up  by  the  hardships  of 
his  native  country,  and  that  as  he  is  likely  to 
become  a  public  charge  he  is  marked  for  deporta- 
tion. He  will  be  sent  back  to  Hamburg  and 
how  he  will  find  his  way  home  I  do  not  know. 


70     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

A  German  woman  with  three  children  is  the 
next  whom  I  notice.  She  is  at  the  point  of  a 
nervous  breakdown.  She  has  a  husband  waiting 
for  her,  she  has  over  $100,  but  P.  C.  is  marked  on 
her  slip ;  so  she  must  face  the  court  which  will 
admit  her,  but  she  has  a  long  twenty-four  hours 
to  wait  and  the  strain  is  terrible.  She  needs  to 
be  reassured  and  comforted. 

Two  boys  under  ten  years  of  age  came  unat- 
tended ;  fine  looking  boys.  Over  their  heavy 
blue  coats  hung  tickets  with  the  mother's  address. 
How  happy  they  were  to  be  going  to  mother. 
She  had  preceded  them  by  several  years  to  work 
out  for  herself  and  for  them  a  new  destiny  on 
this  side  of  the  sea ;  for  on  the  other  side  life  had 
been  blighted  by  the  unfaithfulness  of  her  hus- 
band. At  last  the  hour  came  when  she  could 
send  for  her  children.  How  she  watched  their 
journeying,  and  how  anxious  she  was  while  they 
were  on  the  sea  !  They  are  on  this  ship,  and  she 
is  waiting  for  them  behind  the  iron  grating  at  the 
island.  Crowds  pour  into  the  great  hall,  past  the 
physician,  towards  the  inspectors,  towards  the 
great  centre,  to  the  east  and  the  west.  Now  she 
sees  them;  the  physician  looks  at  their  faces,  and 
bends  low  over  their  chests ;  but  instead  of 
walking  straight  towards  her  they  are  turned  aside 
with  those  suspected  of  contagious  disease. 

"  Where  are  you  from,  my  boy  ? "  "  Russia/' 


AT  THE  GATEWAY  71 

One  of  the  few  real  Russian  peasants  whom  I 
have  met.  He  measures  five  feet  six  inches,  is 
sound  as  an  oak,  and  having  escaped  through  the 
cordons  of  gendarmes  which  separate  his  native 
country  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  came  here  to 
meet  his  brother  who  was  at  work  in  the  coal 
mines  near  Scran  ton,  Pa.  "  What  about  your 
brother?"  "Ah!  Barin  (sir),  my  brother  they 
say,  was  killed  in  the  mines  and  they  are  afraid 
to  let  me  in  ;  so  I  suppose  I  shall  have  to  go  back 
to  Russia,"  and  the  big  melancholy  peasant  cried 
like  a  baby.  "  Buy  this  shirt  from  me,  Barin,  I 
need  money." 

"  What's  the  matter  with  you,  why  are  you  so 
unhappy,  you  gay,  care  free  Roumanian  ?  "  Half 
Slav,  half  Latin,  and  the  whole  no  one  quite  knows 
what, — he  is  dressed  in  a  shepherd's  garb,  a  heavy 
sheepskin  coat  over  him.  "  Look  here,  Panye  (sir). 
This  keeps  me  from  going  as  a  shepherd  to  the 
West ;"  and  he  shows  me  a  lacerated  breast  on 
which  a  wolf  has  written  the  shepherd's  story  of 
his  faithfulness  to  the  sheep.  "  Yes,  the  wolves 
came  round  and  round  my  sheep,"  he  says,  "  and 
I  went  round  and  round  between  the  sheep  and 
the  wolves  and  the  nearer  they  came  the  faster 
I  went  my  rounds  between  them ;  but  before  the 
morning  came  they  tore  many  sheep  though 
they  tore  me  first.  I  bled  and  bled  and  have 
remained  sore  as  you  see.  A  younger  shepherd 


72     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

took  my  place  and  I  sold  all  and  spent  all  to 
come  here.  Ah,  well,  I  could  still  guard  the 
sheep." 

The  most  melancholy  of  all  men  are  the  detained 
Jews,  for  they  usually  have  strong  family  ties 
which  already  bind  them  to  this  new  world,  and 
they  chafe  under  the  delay.  Their  children  or 
friends  are  waiting  impatiently,  crowding  beyond 
their  allotted  limit,  trying  the  severely  taxed 
patience  of  the  officials,  asking  useless  questions, 
and  wasting  precious  time  in  waiting ;  for  the 
courts  work  their  allotted  tasks  with  dispatch,  but 
with  care  and  dignity ;  and  all  must  wait  in  deep 
uncertainty  through  the  long  vigil  of  a  restless 
night  spent  on  the  clean,  but  not  too  comfortable 
bunks  provided  by  the  government. 

Let  no  one  believe  that  landing  on  the  shores 
of  "  The  land  of  the  free,  and  the  home  of  the 
brave"  is  a  pleasant  experience;  it  is  a  hard, 
harsh  fact,  surrounded  by  the  grinding  machinery 
of  the  law,  which  sifts,  picks,  and  chooses  ;  admit- 
ting the  fit  and  excluding  the  weak  and  helpless. 

Much  ignorance  needs  to  be  dispelled  regard- 
ing these  immigrants.  Not  long  ago,  I  heard  one 
of  the  secretaries  of  a  certain  home  missionary 
society  say,  with  much  unction  as  he  pleaded  for 
money  for  his  work,  "  We  land  annually  on  these 
shores,  a  million  paupers  and  criminals."  Un- 
fortunately, much  of  such  impression  prevails. 
It  was  my  privilege  recently,  as  a  member  of  the 


AT  THE  GATEWAY  73 

National  Conference  on  Immigration,  to  be  among 
the  guests  of  the  commissioner  of  the  port  of  New 
York,  and  one  of  the  spectacles  which  we  wit- 
nessed was  the  landing  of  a  ship-load  of  immi- 
grants. We  stood  in  the  visitor's  gallery  and 
looked  down  upon  a  hall  divided  and  subdivided 
by  the  cold  iron  railings.  Many  of  the  visitors 
.  were  beginning  to  hold  their  noses  in  anticipation 
of  the  stenches  which  would  come  with  these 
foreigners,  and  were  ready  to  be  shocked  by  the 
horrors  of  the  steerage. 

Slowly  the  bewildered  mass  came  into  view  ; 
but  strange  to  relate,  those  who  led  the  mass  ap- 
peared like  ladies  and  gentlemen. 

The  women  wore  modern,  half  acre  hats  a  little 
the  worse  for  wear,  but  bought  in  the  city  of 
Prague  a  few  months  before  ;  and  they  were  more 
becoming  to  these  young  Bohemian  women  than 
to  the  majority  of  their  American  sisters. 

The  men  carried  band-boxes,  silk  umbrellas 
and  walking  canes,  the  remnants  of  past  glories. 
They  were  permitted  to  come  in  first  because 
they  wore  good  clothing  and  passed  out  quickly 
into  their  freedom,  the  members  of  our  Congress 
welcoming  them  heartily  by  the  clapping  of 
hands. 

After  them  came  Slavic  women  with  no  finery 
except  their  homespun,  rough,  tough  and  clean  ; 
carrying  upon  their  backs  piles  of  feather-beds 
and  household  utensils.  Strong  limbed  men 


74    ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

followed  them  in  the  picturesque  garb  of  their 
native  villages ;  Slovaks,  Poles,  Roumanians, 
Ruthenians,  Italians,  and  finally,  Russian  Jews ; 
but  lo,  and  behold !  no  smells  ascended  to  our 
nostrils,  and  no  horrors  were  disclosed. 

Taking  a  group  of  delegates  down  among 
them,  we  found  that  they  were  wholesome  look- 
ing people,  not  devoid  of  intelligence,  and  when 
the  barrier  between  us  was  broken  down  by  the 
sound  of  their  native  speech,  they  were  com- 
municative, at  ease,  and  very  human.  The 
first  time  I  entered  New  York  was  at  Castle 
Garden,  from  the  steamer  Fulda,  twenty  years 
ago  ;  and  having  watched  the  tide  of  immigra- 
tion ever  since,  I  can  say  that  I  never  have  seen, 
at  any  time,  a  ship-load  of  better  human  beings 
disembark  than  those  which  came  from  the 
steamer  Wilhelm  77,  on  December  7,  1905. 
And  of  the  many  who  came  on  this  ship,  it  is 
just  possible  that  those  who  wore  neither  fash- 
ionable hats  nor  trailing  skirts,  and  who  were 
not  politely  treated, — it  is  just  possible  that  they 
may  after  all,  make  the  best  members  of  this 
democratic  society. 

A  gentleman  from  Ohio,  a  member  of  the 
Conference  on  Immigration  said  on  the  floor,  in 
open  debate,  and  he  said  it  with  menacing  ges- 
ture :  "  We  don't  want  you  to  send  none  of  them 
yellow  worms  from  Southern  Europe  to  our 
State,  we  got  too  many  of  them  now,"  No 


AT  THE  GATEWAY  75 

doubt  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  and  the  dele- 
gate from  Rhode  Island  who  said  :  "  We  don't 
want  no  more  iv  thim  durrty  furriners  in  this 
grand  and  glorious  counthry  of  ourn,"  voiced 
the  common  prejudice  which  rests  itself  entirely 
upon  its  ignorance. 

It  is  true  that  many  criminals  come,  especially 
'from  Italy.  Many  weak,  impoverished  and  poorly 
developed  creatures  come  from  among  Polish 
and  Russian  Jews,  but  they  are  only  the  tares  in 
the  wheat.  The  stock  as  a  whole  is  physically 
sound  ;  it  is  crude,  common  peasant  stock,  not 
the  dregs  of  society,  but  its  basis.  Its  blood  is 
not  blue,  but  it  is  red,  wholesomely  red,  which 
is  more  to  the  purpose.  Blue  blood  we  also 
receive — thin,  worn-out  blood,  bought  at  a  high 
price  for  the  daughters  of  some  of  our  multi- 
millionaires ;  but  no  one  can  claim  that  either 
they  or  we  have  been  specially  blessed  by  it. 

The  hardships  which  attend  the  examination 
and  deportation  of  immigrants  seem  unavoida- 
ble, and  would  not  be  materially  reduced  if  any 
other  method  were  devised.  To  examine  them 
at  the  centres  of  immigration  seems  a  rather 
vague  and  not  a  feasible  plan.  First  of  all  be- 
cause the  immigrant  can  present  himself  as 
physically  fit,  more  easily  in  his  native  country 
where  the  agencies  already  exist,  to  prepare 
him  for  an  examination  which  most  steamship 
companies  rigidly  enforce ;  because  the  long 


76     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

journey  makes  artificial  cleansing  of  diseased 
eyelids  or  the  hiding  of  other  physical  defects 
impossible.  Again  because  of  the  fact  that 
such  commissions  would  be  hard  to  control  so 
far  from  home  and  would  be  in  constant  danger 
of  exposure  to  "  Graft "  ;  a  disease  not  unknown 
among  American  officials  at  home  and  abroad. 
The  next  reason  is,  that  these  countries  might 
object  to  the  presence  of  such  alien  commissions, 
which  would  select  the  best  material  and  leave 
the  worst ;  and  the  last  reason  is  that  it  would 
give  foreign  governments  a  very  fine  oppor- 
tunity to  detain  those  who  emigrate  for  polit- 
ical reasons  or  those  who  desire  to  avoid  service 
in  the  army. 

Much  greater  responsibility  should  be  put 
upon  the  steamship  companies,  many  of  which 
still  practice  their  ancient  wrongs  upon  their 
most  profitable  passengers0  One  of  the  de- 
mands which  should  be  made,  and  made  imme- 
diately, is  the  abolition  of  the  steerage. 

Future  American  citizens  should  be  taught 
when  they  step  on  board  of  ship,  that  people 
in  America  are  expected  to  live  like  human 
beings,  and  not  like  beasts. 

The  price  they  pay  for  their  passage  is  large 
enough  to  entitle  them  to  better  treatment,  and 
if  it  is  not,  then  the  price  should  be  raised 
to  such  a  figure  as  to  permit  it. 

This  humane  treatment  should  follow  the  pas- 


AT  THE  GATEWAY  77 

senger  until  the  last  moment  of  his  stay  under 
government  supervision ;  for  the  more  humanely 
the  immigrant  is  treated,  the  better  citizen  he  is 
likely  to  become. 

The  steerage  is  responsible  for  not  a  little 
imported  anarchy,  and  the  sooner  it  is  abolished 
the  better.  The  more  humanely  the  immigrant 
.is  treated  at  Ellis  Island,  the  more  humanely  he 
will  deal  with  us  when  he  becomes  the  master 
of  our  national  destiny. 


VI 

"THE  MAN  AT  THE  GATE" 

"  WHAT  questions  will  he  ask?  "  "  How  much 
money  will  he  take?"  "  Will  he  deal  gently 
with  us?"  These  are  the  questions  which  pass 
from  lip  to  lip  among  those  detained  ;  for  the  sub- 
jects of  the  Czar  speak  of  the  State  in  the  personal 
pronoun.  In  fact  the  State  is  scarcely  known  in 
their  vocabulary.  It  is  the  person  of  the  ruler 
which  they  know,  and  which  they  fear  more  than 
they  revere.  The  State  they  have  known,  was 
to  them  very  personal ;  but  to  the  new  State,  they 
are  just  so  much  human  freight  which  needs  to  be 
inspected.  In  the  past  this  has  been  done  not 
only  impersonally  but  inhumanely  as  well,  and 
that  it  is  now  done  more  humanely  and  justly  so 
far  as  possible,  we  owe  to  "  the  man  at  the  gate." 

He  passed  through  the  gate  himself  in  the  old 
Castle  Garden  days,  when  not  much  system  pre- 
vailed, when  boarding-house  keepers  were  let 
loose  upon  us,  frightening  us  half  out  of  our 
senses  and  completely  out  of  our  change.  His 
dollars  were  few  ;  but  like  the  average  immigrant 
of  to-day  he  possessed  a  buoyant  spirit,  a  strong 
body,  keen  wits,  and  bright  eyes  out  of  which 

78 


"  THE  MAN  AT  THE  GATE  "  79 

shone  good  nature  and  the  spirit  of  the  mis- 
chievous boya  He  was  admitted  without  diffi- 
culty, and  drifted  into  Pennsylvania  where  he 
shared  the  lot  of  the  miner,  his  labour  and  his 
dangers.  The  miners  then  were  recruited  from 
the  strongest  immigrant  stock  and  when  they 
felt  themselves  strong  enough  to  organize, 
he  became  one  of  the  leaders.  The  fact  that 
he  led  many  a  rescue  party  to  save  his  en- 
tombed comrades,  and  that  he  displayed  courage 
and  intelligence  brought  him  into  prominence, 
and  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  chose  him  as 
State  Factory  Inspector.  In  this  position  he 
made  enemies  enough  among  the  employers  to 
prove  that  he  was  faithful  to  the  task  set  before 
him,  which  was,  to  enforce  the  laws  regulating 
the  conditions  of  labour  in  workshops  and 
factories.  Later  he  was  appointed  inspector  at 
Ellis  Island  at  a  time  when  the  condition  of  that 
federal  post  was  anything  but  pleasing  to  those 
of  us  who  knew  them,  and  who  were  concerned 
for  the  well-being  of  the  immigrant. 

Roughness,  cursing,  intimidation  and  a  mild 
form  of  blackmail  prevailed  to  such  a  degree  as 
to  be  common.  The  commissioner  in  charge 
at  that  time  was  far  above  all  this,  and  though 
made  conscious  of  the  conditions  was  seemingly 
powerless  to  discharge  dishonest  employees  or 
in  any  way  improve  the  morale  of  the  place. 

The  new   spirit  had  not  yet  come  into  politics 


8o    ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

and  the  spoils  still  belonged  to  the  victors  who 
made  full  use  of  the  privilege.  Among  those 
who  did  their  full  duty  and  who  smarted  under 
the  wrong  done  to  this  weak  and  helpless  mass, 
was  the  once  immigrant,  now  inspector. 

The  conditions  steadily  grew  worse ;  at  least 
the  complaints  grew  more  numerous.  Experi- 
ences like  my  own  were  not  rare.  I  knew  that 
the  money  changers  were  "  crooked,"  so  I  passed 
a  twenty  mark  piece  to  one  of  them  for  ex- 
change, and  was  cheated  out  of  nearly  seventy- 
five  per  cent,  of  my  money.  My  change  was 
largely  composed  of  new  pennies,  whose  bright- 
ness was  well  calculated  to  deceive  any  new- 
comer. 

At  another  time  I  was  approached  by  an 
inspector  who,  in  a  very  friendly  way,  intimated 
that  I  might  have  difficulty  in  being  permitted 
to  land,  and  that  money  judiciously  placed  might 
accomplish  something. 

A  Bohemian  girl  whose  acquaintance  I  had 
made  on  the  steamer,  came  to  me  with  tears  in 
her  eyes  and  told  me  that  one  of  the  inspectors 
had  promised  to  pass  her  quickly,  if  she  would 
promise  to  meet  him  at  a  certain  hotel.  In  heart- 
broken tones  she  asked  :  "  Do  I  look  like  that  ?  " 
The  concessions  were  in  the  hands  of  irresponsible 
people  and  I  remember  the  time  when  the 
restaurant  was  a  den  of  thieves,  in  which  the  im- 
migrant was  robbed  by  the  proprietor,  whose  em- 


"THE  MAN  AT  THE  GATE"          81 

ployees  stole  from  him  and  from  the  immigrant 
also. 

My  complaints  when  I  made  them  were  treated 
with  the  same  neglect  as  were  those  of  others, 
until  with  the  coming  in  of  the  Roosevelt  ad- 
ministration they  had  their  resurrection,  a  change 
was  demanded  and  the  demand  satisfied.  .  .  . 
.  Mr.  William  Williams,  who  was  just  back 
from  Cuba  where  he  had  rendered  distinguished 
service,  and  who  had  come  under  the  notice  of 
the  President,  was  tendered  the  office  of  Com- 
missioner of  Immigration  at  Ellis  Island.  Upon 
his  acceptance,  the  President's  instructions  were 
to  "  clean  out  the  stables."  A  large  measure  of 
reform  was  inaugurated  during  the  two  and  one 
half  years  of  Mr.  Williams's  incumbency  of  this 
office. 

In  looking  for  a  successor,  the  President  con- 
sulted the  records,  evidently  with  the  purpose  of 
discovering  one  thoroughly  conversant  with  the 
conditions,  and  of  experience  coupled  with  ex- 
ecutive ability,  sufficient  to  further  extend  the 
needed  reforms.  Mr.  Robert  Watchorn  was 
chosen  for  this  important  office. 

This  official  announcement  in  relation  to  the 
appointment  appeared  in  the  daily  press  at  this 
time: 

"  Washington,  January  16,  1905. 
"Robert  Watchorn  will  succeed  William  Williams  as 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Immigration  at  New  York. 


82     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

The  appointment  will  be  solely  on  merit.  Mr,  Watchorn 
is  now  United  States  Commissioner  of  Immigration  at 
Montreal.  He  has  been  in  the  immigration  service  for 
many  years,  and  his  record  is  perfect." 

I  ventured  to  ask  the  Commissioner  one  day 
if  he  had  been  given  any  instructions  by  the 
President  as  to  the  course  to  be  pursued.  He 
replied :  u  Yes,  the  President  gave  me  instructions 
very  brief  but  very  pointed.  '  Mr.  Watchorn,  I 
am  sending  you  to  Ellis  Island. — You  will  find 
it  a  very  difficult  place  to  manage. — I  know  you 
are  familiar  with  the  conditions. — All  I  ask  of 
you  is  that  you  give  us  an  administration  as 
clean  as  a  hound's  tooth.' '! 

Should  one  desire  any  further  evidence  that 
Ellis  Island  is  a  difficult  place  to  manage,  let 
him  turn  to  this  incident  and  its  sequel  in 
Senator  Hoar's  "Autobiography  of  Seventy 
Years  "  (ScribneSs): 

During  the  Christmas  holidays  of  1901  a  very  well- 
known  Syrian,  a  man  of  high  standing  and  character, 
came  into  my  son's  office  and  told  him  this  story : 

A  neighbour  and  countryman  of  his  had  a  few  years  be- 
fore emigrated  to  the  United  States  and  established  him- 
self in  Worcester.  Soon  afterwards,  he  formally  declared 
his  intention  of  becoming  an  American  citizen.  After  a 
while,  he  amassed  a  little  money  and  sent  to  his  wife, 
whom  he  had  left  in  Syria,  the  necessary  funds  to  convey 
her  and  their  little  girl  and  boy  to  Worcester.  She  sold 
her  furniture  and  whatever  other  belongings  she  had,. 


"  THE  MAN  AT  THE  GATE  "          83 

and  went  across  Europe  to  France,  where  they  sailed  from 
one  of  the  northern  ports  on  a  German  steamer  for  New 
York. 

Upon  their  arrival  at  New  York  it  appeared  that  the 
children  had  contracted  a  disease  of  the  eyelids,  which 
the  doctors  of  the  Immigration  Bureau  declared  to  be 
trachoma,  which  is  contagious,  and  in  adults  incurable. 
It  was  ordered  that  the  mother  might  land,  but  that  the 
children  must  be  sent  back  in  the  ship  upon  which  they 
arrived,  on  the  following  Thursday.  This  would  have  re- 
sulted in  sending  them  back  as  paupers,  as  the  steamship 
company,  compelled  to  take  them  as  passengers  free  of 
charge,  would  have  given  them  only  such  food  as  was 
left  by  the  sailors,  and  would  have  dumped  them  out  in 
France  to  starve,  or  get  back  as  beggars  to  Syria. 

The  suggestion  that  the  mother  might  land  was  only  a 
cruel  mockery.  Joseph  J.  George,  a  worthy  citizen  of 
Worcester,  brought  the  facts  of  the  case  to  the  attention 
of  my  son,  who  in  turn  brought  them  to  my  attention. 
My  son  had  meanwhile  advised  that  a  bond  be  offered  to 
the  immigration  authorities  to  save  them  harmless  from 
any  trouble  on  account  of  the  children. 

I  certified  these  facts  to  the  authorities  and  received  a 
statement  in  reply  that  the  law  was  peremptory,  and  that 
it  required  that  the  children  be  sent  home ;  that  trouble 
had  come  from  making  like  exceptions  theretofore ;  that 
the  Government  hospitals  were  full  of  similar  cases,  and 
the  authorities  must  enforce  the  law  strictly  in  the  future. 
Thereupon  I  addressed  a  telegram  to  the  Immigration 
Bureau  at  Washington,  but  received  an  answer  that  noth- 
ing could  be  done  for  the  children. 

Then  I  telegraphed  the  facts  to  Senator  Lodge,  who 
went  in  person  to.  the  Treasury  Department,  but  could  get 


84     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

no  more  favourable  reply.  Senator  Lodge's  telegram  an- 
nouncing their  refusal  was  received  in  Worcester  Tuesday 
evening,  and  repeated  to  me  in  Boston  just  as  I  was  about 
to  deliver  an  address  before  the  Catholic  College  there. 
It  was  too  late  to  do  anything  that  night.  Early  Wednes- 
day morning,  the  day  before  the  children  were  to  sail, 
when  they  were  already  on  the  ship,  I  sent  the  following 
dispatch  to  President  Roosevelt : 

"  To  the  President, 

11 White  House,  Washington,  D.  C. 

"  I  appeal  to  your  clear  understanding  and  kind  and 
brave  heart  to  interpose  your  authority  to  prevent  an  out- 
rage which  will  dishonour  the  country  and  create  a  foul 
blot  on  the  American  flag.  A  neighbour  of  mine  in 
Worcester,  Mass.,  a  Syrian  by  birth,  made  some  time  ago 
his  public  declaration  for  citizenship.  He  is  an  honest, 
hard-working  and  every  way  respectable  man.  His  wife 
with  two  small  children  have  reached  New  York. 

"  He  sent  out  the  money  to  pay  their  passage.  The 
children  contracted  a  disorder  of  the  eyes  on  the  ship. 
The  Treasury  authorities  say  that  the  mother  may  land 
but  the  children  cannot,  and  they  are  to  be  sent  back 
Thursday.  Ample  bond  has  been  offered  and  will  be 
furnished  to  save  the  Government  and  everybody  from 
injury  or  loss.  I  do  not  think  such  a  thing  ought  to 
happen  under  your  Administration,  unless  you  personally 
decide  that  the  case  is  without  remedy.  I  am  told  the 
authorities  say  they  have  been  too  easy  heretofore,  and 
must  draw  the  line  now.  That  shows  they  admit  the 
power  to  make  exceptions  in  proper  cases.  Surely,  an 
exception  should  be  made  in  case  of  little  children  of  a 
man  lawfully  here,  and  who  has  duly  and  in  good  faith 
declared  his  intention  to  become  a  citizen.  The  immigra- 


"THE  MAN  AT  THE  GATE"          85 

tion  law  was  never  intended  to  repeal  any  part  of  the 
naturalization  laws  which  provide  that  the  minor  children 
get  all  the  rights  of  the  father  as  to  citizenship.  My  son 
knows  the  friends  of  this  man  personally  and  that  they 
are  highly  respectable  and  well  off.  If  our  laws  require 
this  cruelty,  it  is  time  for  a  revolution,  and  you  are  just 
the  man  to  head  it.  GEORGE  F.  HOAR." 

Half  an  hour  from  the  receipt  of  that  dispatch  at  the 
White  House  Wednesday  forenoon,  Theodore  Roosevelt, 
President  of  the  United  States,  sent  a  peremptory  order  to 
New  York  to  let  the  children  come  in.  They  have  entirely 
recovered  from  the  disorder  of  the  eyes,  which  turned  out 
not  to  be  contagious,  but  only  caused  by  the  glare  of  the 
water,  or  the  hardships  of  the  voyage.  The  children  are 
fair-haired,  with  blue  eyes,  and  of  great  personal  beauty, 
and  would  be  exhibited  with  pride  by  any  American 
mother. 

When  the  President  came  to  Worcester  he  expressed  a 
desire  to  see  the  children.  They  came  to  meet  him  at  my 
house,  dressed  up  in  their  best  and  glorious  to  behold. 
The  President  was  very  much  interested  in  them,  and  said 
when  what  he  had  done  was  repeated  in  his  presence,  that 
he  was  just  beginning  to  get  angry. 

The  result  of  this  incident  was  that  I  had  a  good  many 
similar  applications  for  relief  in  behalf  of  immigrants 
coming  in  with  contagious  diseases.  Some  of  them  were 
meritorious,  and  others  untrustworthy.  In  the  December 
session  of  1902  I  procured  the  following  amendment  to  be 
inserted  in  the  immigration  law. 

"  Whenever  an  alien  shall  have  taken  up  his  permanent 
residence  in  this  country  and  shall  have  filed  his  pre- 
liminary declaration  to  become  a  citizen  and  thereafter 
shall  send  for  his  wife  and  minor  children  to  join  him,  if 


86     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

said  wife  or  either  of  said  children  shall  be  found  to  be 
affected  with  any  contagious  disorder,  and  it  seems  that 
said  disorder  was  contracted  on  board  the  ship  in  which 
they  came,  such  wife  or  children  shall  be  held  under  such 
regulations  as  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  shall  prescribe 
until  it  shall  be  determined  whether  the  disorder  will  be 
easily  curable  or  whether  they  can  be  permitted  to  land 
without  danger  to  other  persons ;  and  they  shall  not  be 
deported  until  such  facts  have  been  ascertained." 

Senator  Hoar  had  touched  however,  only  one 
of  the  many  phases  of  the  situation.  As  the  Presi- 
dent said,  it  was  still  "  a  difficult  place."  Yet 
under  Commissioner  Watchorn  changes  were 
soon  visible.  The  place  became  cleaner ;  a  new 
and  better  system  of  inspection  was  organized, 
discipline  was  maintained  and  strengthened, 
the  comfort  of  the  immigrants  was  considered, 
the  money  changers  were  watched,  dishonest, 
discourteous  and  useless  employees  were  dis- 
charged ;  and  above  all,  the  institution  in  its  re- 
motest corner  was  open  to  any  one  who  wished 
to  come  and  inspect  the  place  which  is  so  im- 
portant in  our  economic  and  social  life. 

Heartier  welcome  than  the  Commissioner 
gives  to  the  visitor  cannot  be  imagined  ;  and 
you  may  take  your  place  among  the  dozen  or 
more  who  have  come  and  who  are  watching  him 
as  he  decides  the  destinies  of  human  lives. 

The  cases  which  come  before  him  are  those 
upon  which  the  special  courts  have  already 


"  THE  MAN  AT  THE  GATE  "          87 

passed ;  so  you  will  see  only  the  wreckage  of 
humanity;  those  who  upon  landing  are  barred 
by  a  law  which  is  indefinite  enough  to  leave  the 
way  open  to  human  judgment  for  good  or  ill. 

Two  undersized  old  people  stand  before  him. 
They  are  Hungarian  Jews  whose  children  have 
preceded  them  here,  and  who,  being  fairly  com- 
fortable, have  sent  for  their  parents  that  they 
may  spend  the  rest  of  their  lives  together.  The 
questions,  asked  through  an  interpreter,  are  per- 
tinent and  much  the  same  as  those  already  asked 
by  the  court  which  has  decided  upon  their  de- 
portation. The  commissioner  rules  that  the  chil- 
dren be  put  under  a  sufficient  bond  to  guarantee 
that  this  aged  couple  shall  not  become  a  burden 
to  the  public,  and  consequently  they  will  be  ad- 
mitted. 

A  Russian  Jew  and  his  son  are  called  next. 
The  father  is  a  pitiable  looking  object ;  his  large 
head  rests  upon  a  small,  emaciated  body;  the 
eyes  speak  of  premature  loss  of  power,  and  are 
listless,  worn  out  by  the  study  of  the  Talmud, 
the  graveyard  of  Israel's  history.  Beside  him 
stands  a  stalwart  son,  neatly  attired  in  the  uni- 
form of  a  Russian  college  student.  His  face  is 
Russian  rather  than  Jewish,  intelligent  rather 
than  shrewd,  materialistic  rather  than  spiritual. 
"  Ask  them  why  they  came,"  the  commissioner 
says  rather  abruptly.  The  answer  is:  "We 
had  to."  "  What  was  his  business  in  Russia?" 


88     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

"  A  tailor."  "  How  much  did  he  earn  a  week  ?  " 
"Ten  to  twelve  rubles."  "What  did  the  son 
do  ?  "  "  He  went  to  school."  "  Who  supported 
him?"  "The  father."  "What  do  they  expect 
to  do  in  America  ?  "  "  Work."  "  Have  they  any 
relatives  ?  "  "  Yes,  a  son  and  brother."  "  What 
does  he  do?"  "  He  is  a  tailor."  "How  much  does 
he  earn?"  "Twelve  dollars  a  week."  "Has 
he  a  family  ?  "  "  Wife  and  four  children."  "  Ask 
them  whether  they  are  willing  to  be  separated ; 
the  father  to  go  back  and  the  son  to  remain 
here?"  They  look  at  each  other;  no  emotion 
as  yet  visible,  the  question  came  too  suddenly. 
Then  something  in  the  background  of  their  feel- 
ings moves,  and  the  father,  used  to  self-denial 
through  his  life,  says  quietly,  without  pathos  and 
yet  tragically,  "  Of  course."  And  the  son  says, 
after  casting  his  eyes  to  the  ground,  ashamed  to 
look  his  father  in  the  face,  "  Of  course."  And, 
"  The  one  shall  be  taken  and  the  other  left,"  for 
this  was  their  judgment  day. 

The  next  case  is  that  of  an  Englishman  fifty- 
four  years  of  age,  to  whom  the  court  of  inquiry 
has  refused  admission.  He  is  a  medium-sized 
man,  who  betrays  the  Englishman  as  he  stands 
before  the  commissioner,  and  in  a  strong,  cock- 
ney dialect  begins  the  conversation  in  which  he 
is  immediately  checked  by  the  somewhat  brusque 
question  :  "  What  did  you  do  in  England  ?"  "  I 
was  an  insurance  agent."  "How  much  did  you 


"  THE  MAN  AT  THE  GATE  "          89 

earn  ?  "  "  Four  pounds  a  week."  "  Why  do  you 
come  to  America  ?  "  "  Because  I  want  a  change." 
"  How  much  change,  that  is,  how  much  money 
have  you  ?  "  "  Forty  dollars."  "  What  do  you 
expect  to  do  here?"  "Work  at  anything." 
"  At  insurance  ?  "  "  Yes."  "  The  decision  of  the 
court  is  confirmed ;  deported,  because  likely  to 
'  become  a  public  charge."  Evidently  insurance 
agents  are  not  regarded  as  desirable  immi- 
grants. 

The  next  case  is  a  sickly  looking  Russian  Jew 
over  forty  years  of  age,  with  an  impediment  in 
his  speech  and  physically  depleted.  He  is 
guaranteed  an  immediate  earning  of  ten  dollars 
a  week.  The  commissioner  turns  towards  his 
visitors  and  asks,  "  What  would  you  do  in  this 
case  ?  "  The  answers  differ,  the  majority  favour- 
ing his  admission.  Although  he  values  our 
judgment  the  commissioner  is  compelled  to  con- 
firm the  decision  of  the  court.  It  is  all  done 
quickly,  firmly  and  decisively  as  a  physician, 
conscious  of  his  skill,  might  sever  a  limb  ;  but  it 
is  done  without  prejudice. 

He  knows  no  nationality  nor  race,  his  business 
is  to  guard  the  interests  of  his  country,  guarding 
at  the  same  time  the  rights  of  the  stranger. 

Work  of  this  kind  cannot  be  done  without 
friction,  for  intense  suffering  follows  many  of  his 
decisions.  Yet  I  have  found  no  one  closely  ac- 
quainted with  the  affairs  of  the  island,  who  does 


90    ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

not  regard  the  "  man  at  the  gate  "  as  the  right 
man  in  the  right  place. 

It  is  interesting  to  follow  him  on  one  of  his 
rounds ;  for  he  watches  closely  the  workings  of 
his  huge  machine.  "  Why  don't  you  let  those 
people  sit  down  ?  "  A  long  line  of  Italians  had 
been  standing  closely  crowded  against  each  other 
when  they  should  have  been  seated  to  await 
their  turn. 

"  Open  that  box,"  he  says,  to  a  lunch  counter 
man,  who  forthwith  opens  box  after  box  contain- 
ing luncheons  bought  by  the  immigrants  as  they 
are  starting  westward  ;  boxes  containing  rations 
enough  for  a  day  or  two,  according  to  the  length 
of  the  journey  undertaken. 

Out  upon  the  roof,  shaded,  protected  and 
guarded  are  many  who  still  await  the  decision 
of  the  court.  Little  children  who  came  all 
alone  and  who  often  wait  for  their  parents,  in 
vain ;  wives  whose  husbands  have  not  yet  come 
as  they  promised  they  would ;  a  promiscuous 
company  of  unhappy  mortals  of  various  degrees. 
One  child,  a  little  girl,  sees  her  father  far  away 
among  those  who  come  to  claim  their  loved 
ones ;  but  the  law  still  holds  the  child,  and  she 
cries  :  "  Tate,  Tateleben,"  and  he  calls  back  to 
her ;  but  his  voice  is  caught  by  the  wind,  and  the 
"  man  at  the  gate  "  has  to  be  the  comforter  for  a 
season ;  and  no  one  knows  how  long  it  may  be 
before  her  own  father  will  comfort  her. 


"  THE  MAN  AT  THE  GATE  "         91 

A  blind  old  mother  here  awaits  tidings  from 
her  son  that  she  may  be  speeded  on  towards  her 
destination,  and  when  she  hears  his  voice  de- 
mands to  know  just  when  she  may  go ;  and  she, 
too,  draws  on  the  sympathies  of  the  "  man  at  the 
gate." 

We  follow  him  into  a  room  which  harbours 
some  eight  or  ten  young  women  marked  for  de- 
portation. They  are  gaily  attired  and  betray  at 
a  glance  that  they  belong  to  the  guild  of  the 
daughters  of  the  street.  They  claim  to  have 
come  to  America  for  all  sorts  of  purposes ;  but 
they  were  caught  with  the  men  who  imported 
them,  members  of  a  firm  whose  business  it  is  to 
supply  the  New  York  market  with  human  flesh. 
They  know  neither  shame  nor  remorse  ;  it  is  all 
crushed  out  of  them,  and  they  brazenly  demand 
to  know  just  when  they  may  go  into  New  York 
to  begin  their  careers.  America  will  be  none 
the  worse  for  their  speedy  departure. 

We  have  seen  "the  lame,  the  halt  and  the 
blind  "  and  one  is  apt  to  think  that  they  represent 
the  normal  type  of  immigrants ;  while  they  are 
really  but  a  small  fraction  of  the  mass  which  is 
strong,  young,  industrious  and  virtuous  and 
which  makes  of  the  "  man  at  the  gate  "  an  opti- 
mist. He  does  not  share  the  feeling  that  the 
immigration  of  to-day  is  worse  than  that  of  the 
past ;  in  fact  he  will  say  quite  freely  that  it  is 
growing  better  every  day.  He  has  his  fears  and 


92     ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

forebodings;  but  he  knows  that  the  miracle  of 
transformation  wrought  on  us,  can  still  be 
wrought  on  this  mass  which  is  just  like  us,  in 
that  it  is  like  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter, 
which  may  be  moulded  just  as  millions  of  us 
have  been  moulded,  into  the  likeness  of  a  new 
humanity.  The  danger,  he  does  not  hesitate  to 
say,  lies  less  in  the  clay  than  in  the  potter. 

The  visit  over,  we  take  the  little  boat  for  the 
battery,  crowding  through  a  mass  of  men  who 
look  up  to  the  guarded  roof  where  their  loved 
ones  are  detained.  "  Tate  Tateleben "  comes 
the  painful  cry  of  the  little  children,  and  one 
envies  the  man  at  the  gate  who  on  the  morrow 
may  answer  these  cries  and  give  the  children  to 
their  fathers  and  the  wives  to  their  husbands ; 
who  may  unite  those  who  have  been  divided  by 
Jong  years  and  a  wide  sea.  .  .  .  But  what  if 
he  cannot  answer  the  cry  of  the  children  ? 

The  "  man  at  the  gate"  need  not  be  envied  for 
the  hard,  daily  task  which  awaits  him  ;  the  task 
of  opening  or  shutting  the  gates,  of  saying : 
"  This  one  shall  be  taken,  and  the  other  shall  be 
left." 

Clear  and  vivid  before  his  eyes  constantly 
stands  the  law,  commanding  him,  on  his  alle- 
giance, to  refuse  admission,  not  merely  to  those 
physically  or  morally  tainted  in  such  degree  as 
to  endanger  the  nation's  life,  but  to  those  "  per- 
sons likely  to  become  a  public  charge."  He  is 


.§« 

^ 


.8 

-  fl  a 
«  .22 
H  S-o 


O     ^o 
H     -** 


EC 

&r 

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e8.- 
rO~ 
O 
0,03 


II 


"  THE  MAN  AT  THE  GATE  "          93 

not  responsible  for  the  law.  He  is  responsible 
for  its  execution,  even  though  his  decisions  some- 
times are  not  less  hard  for  himself  than  for  those 
who  find  the  gates  shut  against  them. 

It  requires  a  buoyant  spirit,  a  steady  hand,  a 
tender  heart,  and  a  resolute  mind.  He  must  be 
both  just  and  kind,  show  no  preferences  and  no 
prejudices,  guard  the  interests  of  his  country  and 
yet  be  humane  to  the  stranger.  To  be  able  to 
say  of  "the  man  at  the  gate"  that  he  accom- 
plishes this  in  a  very  large  measure  is  not  scant 
praise ;  and  if  here  and  there  his  judgment  is 
questioned,  it  simply  proves  that  he  is  as  human 
as  his  critics. 


VII 

THE  GERMAN  IN  AMERICA 

THE  past  had  its  apprehensions  about  its 
various  problems  no  less  than  the  present  has, 
and  our  forefathers  looked  upon  the  non-Eng- 
lish speaking  immigrants  much  as  we  look  upon 
them  to-day.  No  doubt  they  spoke  of  them  as 
an  undesirable  class. 

Many  of  us  remember  when  the  German  and 
the  Scandinavian  immigrants  who  came,  received 
no  heartier  welcome  than  we  now  give  the  Slav, 
the  Italian  and  the  Jew. 

This  large  tide  of  immigration  from  among 
our  non-English  speaking  races  had  its  begin- 
ning long  before  there  was  a  Castle  Garden  or 
Ellis  Island,  and  shortly  after  the  Pilgrims  and 
Puritans  laid  the  foundations  for  their  colonies 
at  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  Bay.  Upon 
the  path  made  by  English  Quakers,  came  in 
1682  the  first  German  immigrants.  They  were 
Mennonites,  a  Protestant  sect  which  manifested 
in  its  tenets  many  of  the  faults  and  virtues  of 
both  Quakers  and  Puritans. 

They  sailed  up  the  shallow  Delaware  Bay, 
where  a  Penn,  who  was  "  mightier  than  the 

94 


THE  GERMAN  IN  AMERICA          95 

sword,"  had  subdued  the  savages  by  his  gentle 
spirit  and  had  made  the  flat  shores  peaceful  for 
the  habitation  of  these  strangers.  They  settled 
in  what  is  now  called  Germantown,  and  soon 
their  little  cottages  were  surrounded  by  gardens 
where  the  rosemary  wafted  its  fragrance  on  the 
air,  and  where  no  doubt  the  cabbage  lifted  its 
astonished  head  above  the  ground,  little  dream- 
ing that  some  day  it  would  be  "  monarch  of  all 
it  surveyed." 

In  some  points  these  Germans  out-Puritaned 
the  Puritans;  for  while  it  is  said  that  the 
Puritans  did  not  kiss  their  wives  on  the 
Sabbath,  these  German  Puritans  did  not  kiss 
their  wives  at  all.  That  they  brought  with  them 
noble  ideals  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  they 
were  the  first  people  on  this  continent  to  oppose 
slavery,  and  sent  to  the  Quakers  a  petition  to 
that  effect  It  contains  the  following  quaint 
paragraph :  "  If  once  these  slaves  (wch  they 
say  are  so  wicked  and  stubborn  men)  should 
joint  themselves,  fight  for  their  freedom  and 
handel  their  masters  &  mastrisses,  as  they 
did  handel  them  before ;  will  these  masters  & 
mastrisses  tacke  the  sword  at  hand  &  warr 
against  these  poor  slaves,  licke  we  are  able  to 
believe,  some  will  not  refuse  to  doe  ?  Or  have 
these  negers  not  as  much  right  to  fight  for  their 
freedom,  as  you  have  to  keep  them  slaves?" 

The  Germans  were  also  the  first  among  us  to 


96    ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

legislate  against  the  vice  of  intemperance,  and 
may  be  said  to  be  the  first  Prohibitionists,  a 
fame  which  the  modern  German  immigrant  does 
not  care  to  share  with  them. 

One  of  the  most  ideal  men  of  this  time  was 
Francis  Daniel  Pastorius,  a  man  who  combined 
in  himself  all  the  graces  and  virtues  of  his  noble 
race ;  he  was  a  lover  of  science  and  the  finer 
pleasures,  and  was  a  mystic  who  yearned  for 
the  closer  communion  with  God.  Pietists, 
Tunkers,  and  others  followed  the  Mennonites  in 
the  eighteenth  century ;  and  Pennsylvania  was 
soon  dotted  by  communities  in  which  these 
strangely  garbed  people  lived  their  peculiar  and 
simple  lives.  To  name  them  all  would  require 
much  space,  and  to  describe  their  peculiarities 
would  fill  a  book.  The  Schwenkfelders,  the 
Moravians,  and  the  Amish  were  the  most  im- 
portant among  the  later  arrivals,  and  Germany 
seemed  to  have  exhausted  her  ability  to  produce 
sects  after  their  departure.  Encouraged  by 
good  Queen  Anne,  Lutherans  and  Roman  Cath- 
olics came  later,  and  these  were  neither  so  pious 
nor  so  intelligent  as  their  predecessors  ;  but  were 
the  advance  guard  of  that  vast  horde  of  peas- 
antry which  ceased  not  its  coming  for  nearly 
two  centuries,  which  moved  from  Pennsylvania 
to  Ohio,  from  there  southward  along  the  Mis- 
sissippi to  Louisiana,  and  northward  to  Wiscon- 
sin and  Minnesota,  and  which  was  a  great  factor 


THE  GERMAN  IN  AMERICA          97 

in  redeeming  the  wilderness  and  making  it  to 
"  blossom  as  the  rose." 

Thousands  of  these  peasants  were  sold  into  a 
semi-slavery  as  Redemptionists,  and  thousands 
more  laid  down  their  lives  in  the  attempt  to 
blaze  paths  through  the  forest  and  make  the 
fever-stricken  plains  habitable.  Wherever  they 
went  they  created  wealth  by  their  unremitting 
industry,  and  by  their  skill  in  cattle-raising  and 
farming,  so  that  where  an  English-speaking 
farmer  starved  and  was  forced  to  move  west- 
ward, they  stayed  and  dug  riches  out  of  the 
neglected  soil. 

To-day,  in  travelling  through  this  country,  one 
can  almost  invariably  detect  the  German  farm ; 
and  the  German  farmer  is  everywhere  the  stand- 
ard of  excellence. 

These  immigrants  were  not  idealists  like 
their  forefathers,  but  were  content  to  worship 
God  as  did  their  fathers,  and  by  the  honest 
sweat  of  their  brows  eat  the  fruit  from  their  own 
"  vine  and  fig  tree."  In  1848,  when  the  breath 
of  freedom  grew  into  a  wind-storm,  there  came 
involuntary  immigrants,  political  exiles  of  whom 
the  late  Carl  Schurz  is  the  best  known,  if  not 
the  best  example.  They  were  all  educated  men, 
many  of  them  real  scholars,  and  whatever  German 
culture  there  is  among  the  Germans  to-day  in 
our  cities  is  in  a  large  measure  due  to  their  influ- 
ence and  example.  They  and  their  descendants 


98     ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

are  our  real  German  aristocracy,  and  in  the 
German  centres  of  Cincinnati  and  Milwaukee 
they  form  the  select  society. 

While  these  men  were  idealists  politically,  they 
were  in  a  large  degree  materialists  religiously, 
and  planted  the  seed  of  Marxian  Socialism  and  of 
infidelity  among  their  countrymen.  One  whole 
colony  in  Minnesota  made  it  one  of  its  tenets  not 
to  have  a  church  or  even  to  mention  the  name 
of  God,  and  the  little  city  of  New  Ulm  bore  that 
distinction  for  a  great  many  years  ;  but  in  spite 
of  the  most  diligent  efforts  to  keep  God  and  the 
churches  out  of  their  town,  several  houses  of 
worship  have  been  built  in  late  years.  While 
much  skepticism  still  prevails,  the  younger  gel. 
eration  almost  as  a  whole  has  turned  to  its  God. 

The  modern  German  immigrant  comes  pressed 
neither  by  hunger  nor  by  his  conscience,  but  most 
often  to  escape  irksome  military  service,  or  drawn 
by  the  German  "  Wanderlust "  which  carries  him 
beyond  the  mountains  of  his  Fatherland  into  all 
corners  of  the  earth,  although  emigration  from 
Germany  increases  and  decreases,  as  the  economic 
times  are  good  or  bad.  On  board  ship  he  is  the 
jolliest  of  passengers,  and  you  will  find  him  at 
the  bar  in  the  morning  for  his  beer  and  late  at 
night  in  the  smoking-room  with  a  crowd  of  jovial 
men  and  women,  singing  the  songs  of  the  Father- 
land, which  grow  sadder  as  he  grows  jollier.  He 
carries  with  him  an  exalted  opinion  of  his  own 


THE  GERMAN  IN  AMERICA          99 

country,  and  has  fully  made  up  his  mind  not  to 
let  anything  crowd  out  his  love  for  it,  so  that  when 
New  York  Harbour  with  its  vastness  and  beauty 
rises  before  him  he  insists  that  it  is  not  half  as 
big  or  as  beautiful  as  the  harbour  at  Hamburg, 
and  only  at  the  sight  of  the  sky-scrapers  does  he 
acknowledge  our  superiority.  I  once  stood  be- 
fore mighty  Niagara  with  one  of  these  subjects 
of  Kaiser  Wilhelm,  and,  with  a  deprecating  shrug 
of  his  shoulders,  he  said  :  "  Ve  gots  dem  in  Sher- 
many  too."  This  attitude  towards  our  country 
lasts  a  long  time,  and  is  lost  only  when  success 
comes. 

The  German  immigrant  invariably  has  a  good 
common-school  education,  although  not  always 
possessed  of  culture,  and,  if  he  has  it,  he  does  not 
find  much  of  it  among  those  with  whom  his  lot 
is  cast.  A  young  chemist  whom  I  met  grew  so 
despondent  at  the  sight  of  his  German  boarding- 
house,  and  at  the  lack  of  manners  among  the 
boarders  that  he  returned  to  Germany  two  weeks 
after  he  landed.  Not  many  such  young  men 
come,  and  few  of  such  who  come  succeed,  for  the 
"  hustle  and  bustle,"  the  common  tasks  to  be  per- 
formed, and  the  common  people  whom  they 
must  meet  as  equals,  repel  them.  The  weaning 
from  aristocratic  notions,  the  being  thrown  into 
the  hopper  without  being  asked,  "  Who  are  you, 
and  who  are  your  parents  ?  "  are  painful  processes, 
and  only  the  fit  survive.  Although  the  process 


loo  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

is  slow,  it  is  sure.  A  young  man  who  has  come 
to  this  country  to  study  our  way  of  doing  business 
was  employed  in  a  large  department  store  in 
Chicago  as  a  bundle-boy.  At  first  he  politely 
addressed  the  elevator  man  thus :  "  Vill  you 
blease  let  me  off  on  de  second  floor  ?  "  but  within 
two  months  he  said  imperatively,  "  Second" ;  and 
he  was  on  the  road  towards  complete  American- 
ization. 

The  city  of  Milwaukee  is  probably  the  most 
German  city  in  the  United  States,  although 
nothing  in  its  business  or  residence  portion  sug- 
gests the  Germany  across  the  sea  and,  with  sixty 
per  cent,  of  its  population  German,  it  has  not  im- 
pressed upon  the  city  the  best  things  which  we 
usually  associate  with  that  nationality.  The  in- 
tellectual life  of  its  people  does  not  receive  that 
stimulus  which  one  might  expect ;  and  whatever 
German  culture  there  is  outside  of  the  ever- 
diminishing  circle  of  the  "  forty-eighters "  has 
been  transplanted  by  Americans  who  have  trav- 
elled and  studied  in  the  Fatherland.  The  few  Ger- 
mans who  try  to  bring  the  Germany  of  America 
in  touch  with  its  glorious  heritage  across  the  sea, 
usually  fail  most  miserably.  The  cry  I  most 
often  heard  from  them  was,  "The  idealists  are 
dead,  and  the  dollar  reigns  supreme." 

With  a  few  exceptions,  neither  the  German 
stage  nor  the  German  newspaper  has  been 
able  to  keep  alive  that  intellectual  spirit;  and, 


THE  GERMAN  IN  AMERICA         101 

as  a  rule,  the  German  population  falls  below 
the  American  in  its  desire  to  keep  in  touch  with 
the  intellectual  life  of  Germany.  "  We  have  two 
kinds  of  Germans  in  Milwaukee  :  soul  Germans 
and  stomach  Germans,  and  the  latter  are  in  the 
vast  majority,"  said  a  keen  observer ;  and  it  does 
seem  that  the  national  spirit  rallies  around  social 
usages  rather  than  around  the  things  which  make 
Germany  a  world  power  in  the  noblest  sense. 
The  editors  upon  whom  I  called  were  all  intent 
upon  telling  me  how  great  their  papers  were 
and  how  many  subscribers  they  had,  and  I  could 
not  go  beyond  the  business  point  with  any  of 
them,  although  I  wasted  two  hours  upon  one, 
trying  to  get  a  glimpse  of  his  German  soul ;  but 
if  I  saw  it  at  all,  it  had  the  American  dollar-mark 
written  all  over  it.  Upon  the  social  side  the 
German  is  abnormally  developed,  and  to  be  a 
"good  fellow"  is  to  him  a  high  ideal.  He 
usually  belongs  to  numberless  lodges  and  socie- 
ties, in  few  of  which  he  receives  any  intellectual 
stimulus.  He  retains  his  convivial  habits  and 
frequents  the  saloon,  but  is  seldom  intemperate, 
although  the  American  treating  habit  often  works 
havoc  with  his  frugality. 

That  I  have  not  misjudged  the  situation  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  similar  conclusions  have 
been  reached  by  eminent  German  scholars  who 
have  recently  visited  the  United  States. 

Prof.   K.    Lamprecht,   of    the    University    of 


102  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

Leipsic,  who  has  recently  published  his  notes 
under  the  title  "  Americana,"  says :  "  Have  the 
Germans  done  much  besides  having  a  large 
share  in  making  the  soil  tillable  ?  A  visit  to  the 
great  cities  such  as  Chicago  and  Milwaukee 
compels  to  the  sad  answer,  no. 

"The  Germans,  capable  as  they  are,  in  their 
separate  and  narrower  activities  have  not  held 
together  and  have  been  overcome  by  others; 
overcome  to  the  degree  that  they  still  make  the 
stupid  "Dutchman"  the  target  for  their  jokes. 
One  need  only  to  see  the  part  he  plays  in  the 
American  farce  to  be  convinced  of  this.  He  is 
the  man  who  is  always  too  late,  who  always 
wants  much  and  at  last  gets  but  little,  and  who 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  is  portrayed  as  good 
natured,  is  laughed  at.  This  caricature  tells 
some  truth  and  is  the  product  of  some  observa- 
tion. 

"Intellectually  he  does  not  stand  very  high; 
(the  Negro  also  learns  reading  and  writing),  but 
in  intense  thinking  he  is  outdistanced  by  the 
Englishman  and  presumably  by  the  Slav  also. 

"  Whoever  has  visited  the  beer  gardens  of  Mil- 
waukee, especially  the  unfortunate  Pabst  Park, 
that  pattern  of  stupidity,  must  say  to  himself 
that  a  people  which  enjoys  such  things  as  are 
here  offered,  is  not  capable  of  intellectual  com- 
petition in  America. 

"Still  sadder  is  the  lack  of  political  discern- 


THE  GERMAN  IN  AMERICA         103 

ment  One  need  not  speak  of  the  corrupt  con- 
dition of  American  politics.  If  the  Germans 
had  really  had  the  desire  they  could  greatly 
have  improved  the  political  morals  of  the  United 
States.  That  they  did  not  use  their  opportunity 
is  due  largely  to  the  fact  that  when  the  early 
German  immigrants  came  to  us,  their  country 
was  not  politically  ripe ;  nevertheless  they  may 
be  accused  of  not  having  kept  pace  with  the 
citizens  of  the  mother  country,  who,  under  more 
difficult  conditions  have  reached  a  very  high 
political  development.  The  common  people 
from  whom  our  immigrants  sprang,  now  have 
large  powers  in  directing  the  political  well-being 
of  the  Fatherland  under  less  favourable  condi- 
tions. This  is  also  true  in  regard  to  the  German 
intellectual  development  with  which  the  German- 
American  has  not  kept  in  touch  and  to  which  he 
is  now  very  slowly  awaking." 

Another  thing  which  this  vast  German  popula- 
tion has  failed  to  impress  upon  our  cities  is  the 
love  of  law  and  order  which  characterizes  it  in 
its  native  home,  and  almost  without  exception  it 
stands  arrayed  against  any  attempt  to  curtail  the 
privileges  of  the  saloon ;  while  lawmakers,  and 
officials,  are  usually  kept  from  enforcing  existing 
laws  by  their  fear  of  the  German  vote.  One  of 
the  Milwaukee  beer-brewers  with  whom  I  talked 
in  regard  to  his  influence  upon  local  politics 
naively  said :  "  No,  we  have  no  influence  upon 


io4  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

politics  at  all,  but  if  a  sheriff  or  a  judge  should 
try  to  enforce  laws  against  our  saloons,  he  would 
simply  lose  his  head."  The  fact  is  that  a  certain 
phase  of  municipal  life  is  completely  controlled 
by  the  brewing  interest  in  nearly  every  city  where 
the  German  element  plays  a  political  part,  and 
that  element  always  rallies  to  the  support  and 
defence  of  the  brewers.  It  is  a  strange  but  gen- 
eral experience  that  the  German  immigrant  is 
immediately  arrayed  against  the  temperance  ele- 
ment ;  this  is  due  in  no  small  measure  to  the 
facts  that  his  first  lodging-place  is  usually  con- 
nected with  a  saloon ;  that  the  German  newspaper 
almost  always  ridicules  temperance  effort  and 
misinterprets  the  motives  of  its  leaders,  and, 
lastly,  that  designing  politicians  make  their  slo- 
gan, "  personal  liberty/'  synonymous  with  "  beer 
at  any  time  and  anywhere."  Only  very  recently 
a  large  portion  of  the  German  population  of 
Chicago  was  the  leading  element  in  a  mass- 
meeting  in  which  over  ten  thousand  people  took 
part,  demanding  the  granting  of  special  licenses 
to.  dance-halls ;  a  precedent  which  would  be  as 
illegal,  as  dangerous. 

Nevertheless,  the  German  is  a  law-abiding 
citizen,  although  he  has  never  been  convinced 
that  temperance  laws  are  either  wise  or  just; 
and  that,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  his  own  Father- 
land is  making  strenuous  efforts  in  that  direc- 
tion, and  that  temperance  societies  are  coming 


THE  GERMAN  IN  AMERICA         105 

to  be  as  numerous  in  Germany  as  they  are  in 
America,  but  much  more  sensible  in  their  agita- 
tion than  with  us.  The  average  German  comes, 
willing  enough  to  obey  all  the  laws,  and,  if  he 
has  proper  environment,  develops  quickly  into 
the  best  kind  of  citizen. 

Neither  in  Milwaukee  nor  elsewhere  did  I  find 
that  the  Church,  whether  Lutheran  or  Roman 
Catholic,  had  kept  pace  with  the  intellectual  de- 
velopment of  the  home  Church,  nor  has  it  come 
to  feel  its  social  responsibility  to  the  community. 
The  German  Lutheran  pastors,  in  certain  synods, 
are  often  more  exclusive  than  the  Catholic  priests 
in  their  unwillingness  to  cooperate  with  other 
churches  for  the  public  good;  and  while  the 
churches  in  Germany  are  the  most  progressive 
on  the  continent,  here  they  are  the  most  con- 
servative, and  correspondingly  inactive  in  the 
affairs  which  move  society.  Certain  synods  of 
the  Lutheran  Church,  and  those  the  most  pros- 
perous, hold  to  the  Augsburg  Confession  more 
tenaciously  than  Luther  ever  did,  and  believe 
that  beside  that  Church  there  is  no  Church,  and 
outside  of  that  creed  no  salvation. 

I  attended  a  Lutheran  church  one  Sunday 
evening  when  it  was  crowded  largely  by  young 
people,  all  of  them  wage-earners  in  the  lower 
walks  of  life.  The  whole  burden  of  the  sermon 
of  nearly  forty-five  minutes'  length  was  the 
thought  that  salvation  is  not  in  morality  or 


io6  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

merit  or  good  deeds,  but  that  the  only  thing 
necessary  to  it  is  a  proper  definition  of  the 
nature  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  was  not  one 
ethical  note  in  the  whole  sermon,  and  if  it  is 
a  fair  sample  of  that  man's  discourses,  his 
flock  of  more  than  fifteen  hundred  souls  is  feed- 
ing upon  barren  pasture.  When  I  called  upon  a 
Lutheran  pastor  who  was  pointed  out  to  me  as  a 
liberal,  I  found,  upon  asking  him  to  define  his 
liberality,  that  it  turned  entirely  upon  social 
habits  and  had  nothing  to  do  with  theology. 
"  I  want  to  drink  my  beer  whenever  I  want  to,'* 
was  the  article  in  his  creed  that  had  driven  him 
into  the  arms  of  a  more  liberal  synod. 

Among  the  Germans  of  the  Northwest  there  is 
a  good  deal  of  infidelity,  fostered  by  the  Turner 
societies;  but  they  are  languishing  and  dying, 
and  with  them  dies  the  unbelief.  I  was  told  in 
Milwaukee  by  a  business  man  that  the  dis- 
appearance of  those  societies  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  men  of  affairs  discovered  that  it  was  poor 
business  policy  to  belong  to  them,  because  it 
arrayed  against  them  the  conservative  church 
element,  and  that  the  cessation  of  infidel  agita- 
tion is  not  a  sign  of  more  faith,  but  simply 
a  sign  of  more  common  sense.  One  free- 
thinking  paper  is  still  published  in  Milwaukee ; 
but  its  constituency  is  gradually  growing 
smaller,  and  the  lecturers  on  infidelity,  of 
whom  there  used  to  be  many,  have  dwindled 


THE  GERMAN  IN  AMERICA         107 

to  one  or  two.  They  find  it  hard  to  make 
a  living  out  of  a  thing  that  has  no  life.  Yet 
the  German  immigrant  contributes  positive 
good  to  this  nation's  life ;  he  brings  usually  a 
sound  body,  and  while  seldom  intellectual,  he  is 
nearly  always  intelligent.  He  is  scrupulously 
honest  in  business  affairs,  and  has  elevated  the 
business  morals  of  his  community.  By  his  love 
of  music  he  has  robbed  the  social  life  in  America 
of  some  of  its  sternness ;  and  the  German  singing 
societies  are  known  not  so  much  for  the  artistic 
quality  of  their  performance,  as  for  keeping 
alive  the  spirit  of  good  fellowship. 

Unfortunately,  the  German  falls  an  easy  prey 
to  the  prevailing  materialistic  spirit,  and  when  he 
worships  mammon  he  becomes  the  most  ardent 
of  devotees.  Then  he  has  no  time  for  his 
"  Gesangverein,"  nor  for  anything  else  which  is 
not  utilitarian,  and  "  Geldmachen,"  the  making 
of  money,  is  his  great  ideal.  In  his  home  life  he 
still  emphasizes  those  virtues  which  have  given 
inspiration  to  the  German  poets'  best  songs. 
His  wife  is,  even  in  America,  the  model 
"  Hausfrau"  ;  for  "she  looketh  well  to  the  ways  of 
her  household,  and  eateth  not  the  bread  of  idle- 
ness." Yet  the  Woman's  Club  has  touched  her 
also,  and  the  "  Kaffeeklatsch,"  with  its  innocent 
neighbourhood  gossip,  has  given  way  to  the 
formal  reception  and  kindred  social  delusions. 
The  German  has  been  the  prime  factor  in  dis- 


io8  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

pelling  the  Puritan  idea  of  the  Sabbath,  which  to 
many  is  a  positive  evil,  but  may  at  least  be  con- 
sidered a  mixed  good.  Still,  he  ought  not  to 
bear  the  blame  alone,  for  the  average  American 
was  ready  to  have  his  Sabbath  broken  for  him 
and  has  easily  followed  into  the  breach  ;  just  as 
it  often  takes  four  or  five  grown  persons  to  es- 
cort one  child  to  the  circus,  so  one  may  find  four 
or  five  natives  at  every  Sunday  base-ball  game, 
helping  the  German  to  amuse  himself. 

The  disintegrating  process  has  also  been 
stimulated  by  the  American  tourists  who  annually 
cross  the  ocean,  and  who,  during  their  visits  in 
Continental  Europe,  leave  much  of  the  Puritan 
spirit  behind  them — too  much  for  their  own  good 
and  the  good  of  their  country. 

The  German  has  not  largely  contributed  to 
the  deepening  of  the  religious  life  of  the  nation, 
although  wherever  he  enters  the  life  of  the 
church  he  makes  its  expression  more  honest 
The  one  thing  which  he  hates  desperately  is 
hypocrisy,  and  because  of  that  he  guards  himself 
very  jealously  and  seldom  speaks  of  his  religious 
experiences.  The  German  Methodist  and  Evan- 
gelical Churches,  which  are  of  the  emotional 
type,  are  not  only  failing  to  grow,  but  are  per- 
ceptibly becoming  smaller.  This  is  to  be  de- 
plored, because  they  developed  a  somewhat  deep 
if  rather  narrow  Christian  character,  and  strove 
to  counteract  the  cold  and  more  formal  spirit  of 


THE  GERMAN  IN  AMERICA         109 

the  majority  of  their  brethren  in  other  com- 
munions. 

The  German  in  America  has  not  produced 
many  great  men,  but  he  has  filled  this  country 
with  good  men,  which  is  infinitely  better.  The 
cause  of  the  dearth  of  prominent  German- 
Americans  is  due  to  the  fact  that  they  blend 
more  quickly  than  any  other  foreigner  (except 
the  Scandinavian)  with  the  nation's  life,  espe- 
cially if  the  German  reaches  any  kind  of  eminence ; 
and  the  effect  which  he  has  upon  the  life  of  the 
nation  is  difficult  to  trace  just  because  of  that. 

The  coarse,  the  crude  and  the  low,  retain  their 
national  stamp,  while  the  finer  and  better  soon 
become  part  of  us.  Some  of  us  seem  to  know 
the  German  best  and  judge  him  most  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  saloon  and  all  it  implies  ;  but  I 
have  almost  always  found  him  industrious,  intel- 
ligent, honest,  frugal,  patriotic,  and  God-fear- 
ing— noble  qualities  for  American  citizenship. 
If  he  has  not  risen  to  the  highest  which  he  is 
capable  of  reaching,  and  if  he  does  not  exert  his 
influence  for  the  best  in  all  directions,  it  is  not 
due  to  the  fact  that  he  is  not  willing  to  do  it ;  but 
because  he  could  not  rise  much  higher  than  the 
highest  marked  out  for  him  by  the  native  citizens, 
or  because  he  could  not  quite  comprehend  that 
this  money-making,  materialistic  Yankee  had 
ideals  which  he  was  trying  honestly  to  realize. 

If  we  misjudge  the  German,  he  misjudges  the 


no  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

American  and  rates  him  much  lower  than  he 
deserves.  This  has  robbed  him  of  a  higher 
standard  for  himself  and  made  him  exagger- 
ate our  national  weaknesses,  imitating  which 
has  created  a  peculiar  combination  of  character 
which  does  scant  justice  to  himself  or  to  his 
American  neighbour.  When  he  revisits  his 
Fatherland,  these  weaknesses  manifest  them- 
selves most;  and  then  his  adopted  Fatherland 
comes  in  for  a  good  share  of  the  blame  for  his 
lack  of  manners.  The  following  incident  illus- 
trates this  point.  In  the  lobby  of  a  fashionable 
hotel  in  Berlin  a  German- American  of  this  type 
was  expectorating  tobacco-juice  with  the  exact- 
ness and  frequency  of  an  adept.  To  a  German 
who  called  his  attention  to  this  nuisance,  he  re- 
plied :  "  Everybody  does  that  in  America."  He 
needs  to  know  the  American  and  value  him  as 
he  deserves,  and  he  ought  to  know  that  which  he 
does  not  seem  to,  that  the  making  of  money  is 
to  the  true  American,  after  all,  not  the  greatest 
of  achievements  ;  that  the  hypocrisy  with  which 
he  charges  him  in  his  religious  life  is  less  frequent 
than  he  thinks  it  is,  and  that  the  national  ideal 
is  slowly  but  surely  gaining  ascendency.  He 
ought  also  to  know  that,  more  than  any  other 
foreigner,  he  has  impressed  upon  us  both  his 
strength  and  his  weakness,  and  that  we  are  grow- 
ing quite  definitely  Teutonic.  It  is  for  us  to  find 
out  what  this  strength  is  and  to  appropriate  it 


THE  GERMAN  IN  AMERICA         in 

more ;  and  it  is  for  him  to  grow  conscious  of  his 
weakness  and  eliminate  it  from  his  social  life, 
that  he  may  become  indeed  one  of  the  strongest 
pillars  of  this  Republic,  which  already,  like  the 
coming  Kingdom,  is  made  up  of  "  every  nation 
and  kindred  and  tribe  and  people  under  heaven." 


VIII 

THE  SCANDINAVIAN  IMMIGRANT 

THE  steerage  of  an  English  vessel  on  which  the 
Scandinavian  immigrants  travel  is  not  the  forbid- 
ding place  usually  found  on  the  steamers  which 
sail  from  Continental  ports.  The  passengers  have 
cabins  assigned  to  them,  their  meals  are  served 
in  human  fashion,  and  the  general  appearance  of 
everything  is  in  keeping  with  that  of  the  travellers 
who  come  from  the  best  peasant  stock  of  Europe. 
The  Scandinavian  peasants  bear  no  taint  of  past 
slavery ;  and  as  far  back  as  their  "  Saga  "  reaches, 
they  were  freemen. 

When  the  new  light  which  first  shone  at  Wit- 
tenberg travelled  northward,  it  found  ready  en- 
trance into  Swedish  hearts,  and  Scandinavia  has 
ever  been  the  bulwark  of  Protestantism,  so  that 
wherever  its  story  is  written,  the  name  of  Gus- 
tave  Adolphe  has  a  prominent  place.  With 
scarcely  any  exception  the  Scandinavian  immi- 
grant is  a  Protestant,  a  confessed  adherent  of 
some  church,  and  in  most  cases  an  ardent  worker 
and  worshipper.  Repeatedly  during  services  on 
shipboard  I  have  found  that  every  Scandinavian 
present  took  an  active  interest  in  it,  and  on  the 

112 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  IMMIGRANT    113 

Sabbath  the  number  of  Bible  readers  and  students 
was  astonishingly  large.  There  is  practically  no 
illiteracy  among  them  and  the  steerage  passenger 
who  read  nothing  on  his  journey  was  an  ex- 
ception ;  the  quality  of  the  reading  was  also  re- 
markable, for  on  one  journey  I  counted  among 
fifty  books,  nine  of  Sheldon's  "  What  would  Jesus 
do?"  and  only  fourteen  novels  of  a  purely  secular 
character. 

The  demeanour  of  the  Scandinavian  immigrant 
is  quiet,  unobtrusive,  almost  melancholy;  and 
when  he  sings  it  is  always  in  a  minor  key,  his 
folk-song  having  the  dreaminess  of  the  Orient 
and  being  as  far  removed  from  the  jig  of  his  Irish 
fellow  traveller  as  the  North  is  from  the  South. 
He  is  homesick  from  the  time  he  steps  on  board 
of  ship  until  he  reaches  his  home  "  in  the  land 
where  there  is  no  more  sea" ;  and  the  asylums  of 
the  Northwest  are  full  of  Scandinavian  men  and 
women  who  have  sunk  into  hopeless  melancholia 
because  of  homesickness.  Yet  in  spite  of  this 
most  of  the  immigrants  remain  in  America  and 
more  than  any  other  foreigner  blend  completely 
into  the  national  life. 

There  is  scarcely  such  a  thing  as  a  second 
generation  of  Scandinavians,  although  the  first 
generation  never  loses  its  love  and  longing  for 
fair  "  Scandia.  "  A  great  many  who  come  know 
the  English  language  or  at  least  some  words,  and 
being  in  touch  here  with  a  spirit  which  is  as 


H4  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

serious  as  their  own  it  is  no  wonder  that  they 
remain,  and  become  merged  in  the  national  life. 
Not  one  who  comes  is  a  pauper,  although  not 
a  few  are  poor ;  yet  nearly  all  are  rich  in  a 
heritage  of  health  and  character  which  un- 
fortunately they  do  not  always  retain  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  In  fact  it  is  proved  that  the 
second  generation  is  weaker  physically,  and 
many  of  the  older  immigrants  claim  that  it  has  lost 
much  moral  fibre  also.  This  complaint  which  I 
have  heard  from  all  foreigners  about  their  descend- 
ants is  largely  due  to  the  natural  tendency  to 
overrate  the  past  and  to  underrate  the  present. 
It  is  also  true  that  the  second  generation  un- 
dervalues the  heritage  which  the  parents  brought 
with  them  from  across  the  sea ;  and  in  not  a  few 
cases  because  of  that,  it  becomes  morally  and 
spiritually  bankrupt. 

I  have  seldom  seen  Scandinavian  immigrants 
of  more  than  middle  age,  and  most  of  them 
are  young  men  and  women  between  eighteen 
and  thirty-six.  Some  remain  in  the  large 
cities  of  the  East  where  they  are  valued  as 
servants,  gardeners  and  dairymen,  more  of  them 
drift  to  Jamestown,  N.  Y.,  as  mechanics ;  but  the 
large  majority  of  immigrants  go  to  the  North- 
west where  they  have  been  "  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water/'  where  they  have  turned  the 
sod  of  far  stretching  acres  towards  the  sun  and 
where  their  cattle  graze  upon  a  thousand  hills 


From  stereograph  copyriylit — 1905,  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  T. 
FAREWELL  TO  HOME  AND  FRIENDS 

Close  of  kin  to  us  are  the  Scandinavians,  not  only  in  race,  but  in  thought 
and  in  ideals.  More  than  any  other  element  do  they  blend  quickly  and  thoroughly 
with  our  national  life. 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  IMMIGRANT    115 

They  like  the  melancholy  plains  of  the  Dakotas ; 
the  cold  winters  remind  them  of  their  own  far 
North,  and  if  any  strange  country  ever  grows  to 
them  like  home  it  certainly  is  this  hospitable 
region  in  whose  mills  and  factories,  beginning  at 
Chicago  and  ending  in  that  West  which  each  day 
comes  nearer  to  the  true  East  across  the  Pacific, 
they  are  toilers,  skilled  labourers  and  trusted  fore- 
men. 

I  have  yet  to  find  the  shop  where  they  are 
not  liked ;  although  their  less  industrious  fellow 
workmen  of  other  nationalities  call  them  treacher- 
ous— a  word  which  they  themselves  do  not  quite 
understand;  but  which  means  that  the  Scandi- 
navians "get  ahead,'1  and  that  is  often  cause 
enough  to  give  them  a  bad  name.  In  all  my 
dealings  with  them  I  have  found  them  frank  and 
generous,  and  while  playing  farmer  in  order  to 
know  them  better,  my  fellow  labourer  has  many  a 
time  hitched  the  horses  for  me,  or  shovelled  my 
portion  <  i  the  corn,  and  when  he  found  that  I 
was  only  u  make-believe  farmer  did  not  betray 
my  confidence. 

With  such  experiences  and  with  such  high 
esteem  of  the  Scandinavian,  I  joined  a  party  of 
young  Swedes  who  were  travelling  from  Chicago 
to  the  Northwest.  They  were  disgusted  by  that 
city,  by  its  moral  and  physical  filth,  its  noise  and 
its  few  glimpses  of  God's  heaven,  and  I  congratu- 
lated them  upon  going  to  Minneapolis  which 


n6  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

I  described  in  glowing  terms  as  a  clean  and 
godly  city  in  which  an  American  population 
of  New  England  descent  combined  with  this 
wholesome  Scandinavian  element  in  making  a 
model  city.  Eager  to  have  America  shine  to 
them  in  its  very  best  light  I  offered  myself  as 
their  guide  through  the  city,  an  offer  which  they 
readily  accepted.  We  had  scarcely  stepped  out 
of  the  Union  Depot  before  I  wished  that  I  had 
not  said  anything  about  the  godliness  of  Minne- 
apolis ;  for  we  were  set  upon  by  thugs,  fakirs  and 
lewd  women  in  such  numbers  and  in  such  a  dis- 
gusting manner  that  I  thought  for  a  moment  I 
had  struck  the  Bowery  in  its  palmiest  days. 
Dozens  of  squares  around  the  depot  and  deep  into 
the  heart  of  the  city  were  filled  by  brothels  of  the 
most  disgraceful  kind ;  pictures  were  displayed 
in  show  windows  and  in  the  open  porticos  of 
museums  which  would  make  a  Paris  street  gamin 
blush,  and  the  whole  city  seemed  to  be  stricken 
by  some  fatal  disease.  Policemen  w^re  neither 
ornamental  nor  useful,  city  detectives  were  em- 
ployed by  gamblers  to  hustle  the  fleeced  stranger 
out  of  town,  the  mayor,  the  sheriff  and  who  knows 
who  else  were  in  league  with  gamblers  and 
thieves,  while  vice  was  everywhere  rampant  and 
did  not  even  have  to  defy  the  law  for  there  was 
no  law. 

Newspaper  men  whom  I  interviewed,  told  me 
that  Minneapolis  was  considered   by  travelling 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  IMMIGRANT    117 

men  the  "  toughest  "  town  this  side  of  Butte,  Mon- 
tana. Ministers  said  that  they  were  helpless 
and  many  told  me  that  it  was  none  of  their 
or  my  business ;  officials  were  paralyzed,  the 
mayor  was  a  fugitive  from  justice,  the  chief  of 
police  was  about  to  be  sent  to  the  peniten- 
tiary for  safe  keeping ;  and  all  of  them  agreed 
that  these  conditions  were  in  no  small  measure 
due  to  the  Scandinavian  population  which  was 
not  fitted  for  public  responsibility. 

I  had  just  come  from  Jamestown,  N.  Y.,  which 
has  about  the  same  population  of  Scandinavians, 
where  they  had  elected  a  Swedish  mayor  who 
gave  great  satisfaction,  where  many  offices  were 
held  by  Swedes,  and  where  I  had  heard  no  such 
complaints. 

In  Minnesota  generally,  no  taint  attached 
itself  to  such  Scandinavians  as  Knute  Nelson, 
Lind  and  others  who  had  served  in  high  offices 
in  state  and  nation ;  therefore  I  was  shocked, 
puzzled  and  disappointed.  I  found  the  com- 
mon verdict  in  Minnesota  to  be :  "  We  can't  trust 
the  Swedes  in  public  offices ; "  and  the  number  of 
defaulting  county  and  city  treasurers  of  Scandi- 
navian nationality  (especially  Swedish)  who 
spent  a  few  years  in  Stillwater  prison,  makes 
the  generally  accepted  estimate  of  the  high  char- 
acter of  the  Swede  as  a  citizen  waver  not  a 
little. 

If  this  estimate  be  true  it  may  be  due  first  of 


Ii8  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

all  to  the  Swedish  churches,  which  have  not  as  a 
rule,  in  common  with  a  large  share  of  the  Ameri- 
can churches,  sufficiently  emphasized  the  fact 
that  "  righteousness  exalte th  a  nation,"  and  that 
it  can  become  exalted  only  through  a  righteous 
citizenship.  The  Lutheran  churches  have  been 
busy  preaching  doctrines  and  have  been  so 
eager  to  maintain  the  Augsburg  confession  that 
they  have  not  laid  much  stress  upon  upholding 
the  spirit  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  all 
that  it  means  for  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The 
"  Mission  Friends,"  as  a  large  body  of  Swedish 
Christians  calls  itself,  has  been  so  busy  in  com- 
mon with  Methodists  and  Baptists,  doing  evan- 
gelizing work,  and  building  up  its  local  church 
membership,  that  it  has  forgotten  that  it  has 
something  to  do  with  saving  the  state  or  the  city. 
The  second  cause  may  be  ascribed  to  the 
clannish  feeling  fostered  by  cunning  politicians, 
which  makes  these  people  vote  for  a  Scandina- 
vian no  matter  what  his  character  is,  just  because 
he  is  one  of  their  own.  In  this  as  in  the  first 
case  I  do  not  wish  it  to  appear  that  the  Scan- 
dinavian is  a  sinner  above  all  others,  but  he  has 
been  remarkably  unfortunate  in  the  character  of 
the  officials  whom  he  has  chosen,  and  it  will 
take  a  great  deal  of  repentance  and  general 
betterment  to  make  the  people  of  Hennepin 
County  unsuspicious  of  the  Scandinavian  office 
seeker. 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  IMMIGRANT    119 

The  very  worst  thing  in  our  national  life, 
the  most  corrupting  thing  in  every  way  is 
this  voting  as  Scandinavians  or  Hungarians, 
and  not  as  Americans.  It  amounts  in  many 
cases  to  a  kind  of  treason  and  deserves  to  be 
treated  as  such.  The  politicians  and  the  polit- 
ical party  which  foster  that  sort  of  thing  are  in 
a  small  but  very  dangerous  business  which  does 
more  to  hamper  the  American  consciousness 
in  the  foreigner  than  any  other  thing  I  know  of ; 
and  is  to-day  the  great  poison  which  needs  to 
be  eliminated  from  the  national  life.  In  nine 
cases  out  of  ten  the  foreigner  is  made  a  scape- 
goat by  designing  politicians  who  give  him  a 
small  office  which  pledges  him  to  do  an  unfair 
and  often  a  dishonest  thing.  In  the  Northwest 
it  has  brought  a  stigma  upon  the  Swedes:  a 
bad  reputation  which  they  do  not  deserve  and 
which  they  must  throw  off  for  their  own  good 
and  for  the  good  of  the  country. 

The  third  and  perhaps  the  best  reason  for 
this  state  of  affairs  is  the  fact  that  in  common 
with  other  foreigners  they  have  had  a  poor 
example  set  them  by  the  Americans.  Minne- 
apolis citizens  were  so  busy  making  money 
that  they  did  not  realize  that  their  city  was  in 
the  hands  of  thieves  and  robbers  who  not  only 
"  killed  the  body,"  but  cast  many  a  soul  into 
hell.  One  is  roused  to  anger  by  the  dis- 
closures of  graft  in  St.  Louis,  Philadelphia  and 


120  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

other  cities  too  numerous  to  mention  ;  but  when 
city  officials  like  the  mayor  of  the  city  and  the 
chief  of  police,  both  of  them  of  good  American 
stock,  are  proved  to  be  in  league  with  gamblers 
and  other  immoral  folk  who  corrupt  the  youth 
and  destroy  the  trustful  foreigner  who  comes 
from  farm  and  forest,  then  one's  indignation 
ought  to  know  no  bounds.  Justly,  the  Swedes 
of  Minneapolis  say,  "  the  big  rascals  were  Amer- 
icans supported  by  American  voters,  many  of 
them  in  Christian  churches  and  highly  esteemed 
in  business  and  social  life."  Nor  can  the  con- 
tented citizen  of  that  beautiful  place  take  any 
satisfaction  in  the  fact  that  some  of  the  rascals 
were  brought  to  justice  and  that  the  conditions 
have  changed.  This  miserable  state  of  affairs 
might  still  exist  if  the  aforesaid  rascals  had 
not  quarrelled  with  each  other  and  finally  des- 
troyed themselves.  Scarcely  any  one  in  Min- 
neapolis deserves  the  credit  of  having  lifted  his 
voice  against  it  or  raised  a  protest  because  of 
the  encroachment  of  a  vice  which  has  no  bounds 
and  which  can  be  made  harmless  only  by  being 
driven  away.  For  a  city  to  give  up  its  water- 
front to  palaces  of  shame  where  openly  and 
defiantly,  women  plied  their  fearful  trade,  is 
poor  business,  poor  esthetics,  poor  ethics  and 
poor  Christianity.  Its  encroachment  upon  the 
Union  Depot  where  every  stranger  enters,  and 
its  perfect  freedom  to  obtrude  itself,  is  all  poor 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  IMMIGRANT   121 

politics  as  it  certainly  is  a  poor  introduction  to 
that  beautiful  city's  life.  How  much  the  for- 
eigner is  to  blame  I  cannot  tell,  but  this  is  true : 
that  Minneapolis  has  the  best  foreign  element 
and  of  course  some  of  the  worst ;  it  has  a  vig- 
orous, earnest  American  population  with  a  noble 
heritage,  and  yet  it  has  failed  not  only  in  mak- 
ing an  all-around  citizen  of  that  foreigner  but 
even  in  governing  its  own  city ;  and  the  usual 
excuses  of  an  ignorant,  Sabbath-breaking  for- 
eign element  do  not  hold  good  here,  for  the 
foreigner  in  Minneapolis  obeys  the  Sunday  law, 
goes  to  church  (one  church  has  over  4,000  wor- 
shippers on  Sunday  night),  is  not  ignorant 
or  vicious,  and  yet  he  is  said  to  be  a  poor 
citizen. 

After  all  the  blame  must  fall  largely  upon  those 
Americans  who  have  lost  the  backbone  of  the 
Puritans  and  the  vision  of  the  Pilgrims,  who 
feel  little  responsibility  towards  the  great  city 
problem,  and  rest  content  with  the  fact  that  they 
live  in  parks,  that  the  saloon  cannot  encroach 
upon  their  dwellings,  and  then  are  willing  to 
let  the  rest  go  as  it  pleases  and  where  it  pleases. 
If  their  pastors  lift  the  prophetic  voice,  they  are 
"fired,"  even  as  Savonarola  was  burned,  and 
it  amounts  to  the  same  thing.  There  is  a  per- 
fect stream  of  new  ministers  who  come  and  go, 
and  many  go  away  broken  in  body  and  in 
spirit. 


122  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

In  the  politics  of  the  state,  the  Scandinavian 
has  a  well-deserved  and  honoured  place,  and 
the  administration  of  Governor  Johnson  goes 
far  to  disprove  any  aspersions  cast  upon  his 
people. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  communities  in 
Kansas  is  the  Swedish  town  of  Lindsburgh, 
where  Bethany  College  is  located.  It  has  be- 
come an  intellectual  and  musical  centre,  and  its 
influence  is  as  wholesome  as  it  is  large. 

I  am  not  defending  the  foreigner ;  he  has  his 
faults,  and  too  often  does  not  make  the  most 
of  his  great  opportunity,  but  he  is  as  clay  in  the 
hands  of  the  American  who  can  make  of  him 
what  he  pleases. 

In  Jamestown,  N.  Y.,  you  have  a  strong  Ameri- 
can community  with  firm  convictions,  and  this 
same  Scandinavian  becomes  like  it. 

In  Minneapolis  you  have  no  such  strong  con- 
victions of  righteousness  and  you  have  a  Scan- 
dinavian population  which  men  in  authority  say 
is  unfit  to  exercise  its  citizenship.  Our  cities 
need  to  cultivate  a  twentieth  century  Puritanism 
— broad  and  deep,  intense  yet  sympathetic,  un- 
yielding yet  charitable ;  and  they  will  find  that 
the  most  ready  imitators  will  be  the  foreigners ; 
especially  these  Scandinavians  who  were  our 
kinsmen  before  they  came  here  and  who  are 
ready  to  be  our  brothers,  and  heirs  of  the  same 
Kingdom. 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  IMMIGRANT    123 

In  everything  which  makes  a  strong  people 
and  a  great  state  they  have  taken  an  active  and 
conscientious  part.  They  are  staunch  supporters 
of  the  public  schools ;  their  children  finally  be- 
come teachers  and  in  every  academy  and  uni- 
versity of  the  northwest  the  Scandinavians  are 
an  important  contingent,  industrious  and  faithful 
as  students,  scholarly  and  loyal  as  professors. 
Their  churches  are  well  built,  well  supported, 
and  more  and  more  their  pastors  are  taking 
their  places  as  true  leaders  among  the  people. 
They  are  intensely  interested  in  the  larger  mis- 
sion of  the  gospel  and  in  the  evangelization  of 
the  world  ;  they  believe  in  missions,  pray  for 
missions,  give  to  missions,  and  thus  have  a  wide 
horizon.  In  the  Northwest  they  are  the  greatest 
foes  of  the  liquor  traffic,  and  one  can  always 
count  on  many  of  them  in  an  effort  to  enforce 
existing  laws  or  frame  new  ones  for  its  restric- 
tion or  destruction.  Neither  they  nor  any 
nationality  which  has  come  to  America  is  alike 
good  or  free  from  serious  faults,  but  a  man 
would  have  to  be  short-sighted  indeed  not  to 
realize  that  they  have  brought  to  this  country 
rich  moral  treasures  which  we  have  not  suffi- 
ciently used  or  developed. 

What  a  people  we  might  be,  if  we  would 
appropriate  all  that  the  Jew  brings  of  spiritual 
vision  and  cut  down  his  business  ardour  and  crafti- 
ness by  our  own  emphasis  of  the  nobler  gift ;  if 


124  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

we  would  receive  the  Slav's  virgin  strength  and 
plant  upon  it  all  that  we  of  older  civilization  have 
learned  to  hold  precious  ;  if  we  would  emulate 
the  German's  thoughtfulness  and  thoroughness 
and  not  imitate  and  encourage  him  in  the  trade 
in  lager  beer  and  the  use  of  it.  What  a  nation 
we  should  be  if  we  would  take  the  Hungarian's 
devotion  to  his  native  land  and  make  it  burn 
with  just  such  a  true  fire  upon  the  altar  of  this 
country ;  and  finally,  if  we  would  mingle  all  the 
virtues  that  the  nations  bring  us  with  the  serious- 
ness and  loftiness  of  the  Scandinavian's  mind 
and  heart, — if  we  did  this  through  one  genera- 
tion, in  one  city  of  our  country  we  would  bring 
the  Kingdom  of  God  down  upon  the  earth. 

Nor  is  this  all  a  pious  wish  or  simply  a  flow  of 
rhetoric :  we  shall  have  to  do  that, — cultivate  in 
one  another  the  best  gifts, — or  we  shall  reap  a 
harvest  of  the  worst ;  for  in  the  Scandinavian  we 
can  see  how  the  very  best  may  become  like  the 
worst  simply  through  our  own  neglect.  We 
must  believe  about  one  another  only  the  best, 
for  people,  like  bad  boys,  live  up  to  their  repu- 
tation. 

This  country  ought  to  be  no  place  for  racial  or 
national  hatreds,  and  no  people  must  be  branded 
as  this  or  that  simply  because  of  one  superficial 
or  even  deep  seated  fault.  How  often  I  have 
heard  from  well  meaning,  respectable  people : 
"  You  can't  trust  the  Scandinavians,  they  are  im- 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  IMMIGRANT    125 

moral,  they  are  treacherous ; "  when  in  fact  they 
had  no  proof  for  their  assertions,  and  simply 
sowed  seeds  of  discord  of  which  they  must  some 
day  reap  the  harvest 


IX 

THE  JEW  IN  HIS  OLD  WORLD  HOME 

IT  is  said  of  a  certain  English  scientist  that  he 
began  a  work  on  "  Snakes  in  Ireland "  by  the 
sentence:  "There  are  no  snakes  in  Ireland"  ;  and 
one  could  easily  without  seeming  to  be  facetious 
begin  this  chapter  by  saying  :  "The  Jew  has  no 
home." 

He  is  a  man  without  a  country,  and  without  a 
king;  he  belongs  to  a  nation  which,  scattered 
over  the  face  of  the  earth  has  yet  retained  the 
chief  elements  of  an  ancient  faith,  although  no 
centralized  authority  guards  it.  Inheriting  the 
cultural  influences  of  his  past,  he  absorbs  the 
culture  of  each  race  which  harbours  him  for  a 
season.  Although  driven  in  turn  from  each 
insecure  habitation,  he  has  not  degenerated  into 
a  nomad,  but  begins  the  task  of  home  and  for- 
tune making,  wherever  a  more  hospitable 
people  affords  a  resting  place  for  his  weary  feet. 

In  his  ancient  home  in  Palestine,  in  the  very 
citadel  of  his  faith, — Jerusalem,  he  is  the  greatest 
stranger,  and  people  of  alien  beliefs  have  built 
their  monuments  on  the  sites  of  his  grandest 
spiritual  conquests,  and  over  the  tombs  of  his 
prophets  and  seers. 

126 


THE  JEW  in  his  OLD  WORLD  HOME   127 

Weeping,  he  tears  his  garments  and  beats  his 
head  against  a  wall  which  is  all  that  is  left  of  the 
temple  thrice  rebuilt,  thrice  ruined,  and  now  hav- 
ing upon  its  ancient  foundations  a  mosque,  with 
crescent  crowned  minaret,  from  whose  height  the 
Muezzin  cries :  "  Allah  ho  Akbar,"  a  sound  which 
vibrates  against  the  ears  of  the  Jew  like  the 
mocking  of  the  prophets  who  seem  to  say :  "  I 
told  you  so." 

Among  the  Arabs,  his  kinsmen,  he  is  a  stranger ; 
for  although  in  speech,  dress  and  bearing  he  is 
like  them,  in  thought  and  feeling  he  is  above 
them ;  yet  the  coarsest  Mohammedan  servant 
will  pronounce  the  word  "  Yahudi,"  with  all  the 
scorn  of  a  superior  and  all  the  hatred  of  an 
enemy. 

His  features  have  not  changed  since  the  time 
when  Egyptian  artists  drew  with  crude  touch  on 
their  temple  walls  the  story  of  the  stranger's  com- 
ing, his  slavery  and  his  exodus. 

Wherever  you  find  him,  among  the  Arabs  of 
North  Africa  or  among  the  Danes  of  Northern 
Germany,  he  still  bears  the  marks  of  his  race,  with 
the  flame  of  Sinai  in  his  look  and  the  fire  of  the 
Southland  on  his  cheek. 

In  Africa  he  is  most  numerous  in  Morocco, 
where  300,000  souls  struggle  for  daily  bread 
and  are  hated  according  to  their  number  ;  while 
in  Egypt  where  once  he  was  found  in  largest 
numbers,  now  only  about  10,000  Jews  live. 


128  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

The  whole  number  for  Africa  does  not  exceed 
half  a  million ;  in  Asia  he  is  200,000  strong  or 
weak,  in  America  above  2,000,000,  while  Europe 
has  given  him  room  enough  to  grow  into  7,000,- 
ooo.  Between  10,000,000  or  11,000,000  is  about 
the  whole  number  of  Jews  now  in  existence,  with 
the  city  of  New  York  as  the  largest  Jewish  centre 
in  the  world,  having  no  less  than  600,000  of  the 
faithful. 

To  describe  the  Jews  in  their  varied  environ- 
ments means  to  draw  many  pictures  and  yet  one ; 
for  while  they  differ  widely  according  to  the  de- 
gree of  civilization  by  which  they  are  surrounded, 
certain  characteristics  remain  the  same. 

Everywhere  the  Jew  becomes  outwardly  like  his 
masters — but  often  remains  unlike  them  in  his 
spiritual  life  and  in  those  deeper  things  which  ex- 
press themselves  spontaneously  and  which  are  too 
well  grounded  in  his  nature  to  be  wiped  out  en- 
tirely by  the  mere  touch  of  the  stranger. 

Physically  he  is  usually  smaller  and  weaker, 
has  brown  or  gray  eyes  and  dark  hair,  although 
not  seldom  it  is  red  and  curly.  Among  the 
Europeans  his  head  and  neck  are  always  large ; 
but  his  face  is  the  smallest. 

There  are  a  vivaciousness  in  his  manner,  a 
rather  emphatic  and  constant  gesticulation,  and 
a  certain  something  in  his  speech  which  always 
mark  him,  and  mark  him  unmistakably,  the  Jew. 

He   quickly  reciprocates  both  good  and  evily 


THE  JEW  in  his  OLD  WORLD  HOME   129 

and  is  regarded  with  apprehension  because  of  his 
aggressiveness ;  for  as  both  friend  and  foe  he  is 
intense.  Where  an  inch  of  approach  is  granted 
he  may  want  an  ell,  while  where  he  hates  he  does 
not  hate  in  moderation.  His  business  shrewd- 
ness is  proverbial,  although  it  is  not  his  native 
genius  for  the  proverb  current  in  the  Orient : 
"  It  takes  one  Jew  to  cheat  three  Christians,  it 
takes  one  Armenian  to  cheat  ten  Jews,  it  takes 
one  Greek  to  cheat  twenty  Armenians,"  while  no 
more  correct  than  such  generalities  are  likely  to 
be,  proves  the  assertion  that  he  is  not  the  cham- 
pion in  the  chief  game  of  life. 

He  has  had  bad  environment  for  the  develop- 
ment of  business  honesty,  yet  I  know  of  scarcely 
a  community  in  the  world,  in  which  the  Jew  plays 
any  part,  where  he  would  not  have  a  strong  rep- 
resentation, if  a  group  of  the  most  trustworthy 
citizens  was  called  together  for  any  purpose. 

The  world  in  which  he  lives  and  in  which  he 
trades,  is  the  world  which  he  reflects,  and  he  has 
not  always  created  the  conditions  which  exist 
there. 

To  "  Jew  down,"  which  is  a  synonym  for  beat- 
ing down  in  price,  is  as  current  in  business  where 
he  is  no  factor,  as  where  he  is.  In  Italy  it  is  an 
economic  disease,  and  in  Russia,  in  those  regions 
closed  to  the  Jewish  tradesman,  the  native  haggles 
with  the  priest  about  the  price  of  a  funeral  or  a 
baptism,  with  the  cab  driver  over  the  fare,  and 


I3o  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

even  attempts  to  bargain  on  the  railroad  when  he 
buys  his  ticket. 

To  generalize  about  the  good  or  bad  charac- 
teristics of  the  Jew  is  as  difficult  as  it  is  to  portray 
those  of  any  race.  When  he  judges  himself  he 
is  either  unjustly  severe  or  profusely  apologetic, 
for  a  people  which  has  lived  for  so  many  cen- 
turies under  abnormal  conditions,  cannot  be 
known  by  the  stranger,  nor  can  it  know  itself. 

At  present  the  Jew  is  somewhere  between 
Shakespeare's  Shylockand  George  Elliot's  Daniel 
Deronda ;  and  more  Shylock  where  the  hate  of 
the  middle  ages  makes  it  impossible  for  him  to 
grow  into  George  Eliot's  ideal.  He  is  most  un- 
comfortably felt  in  those  countries  where  he  is  in 
the  transition  period,  when  he  is  apt  to  be  over- 
bearing and  given  to  sensuous  pleasure  ;  even 
then  he  is  not  so  grasping  as  Shylock  although 
not  so  lovable  as  Daniel  Deronda.  He  does  not 
need  much  time  to  come  to  his  full  development. 
His  genius  quickly  manifests  itself,  and  while  he 
is  charged  with  superficiality,  the  fact  that  in  all 
sciences  there  are  accurate  scholars  of  the  Jewish 
race,  disproves  that  accusation,  although  his 
emotional  nature  does  not  best  fit  him  for  the 
patient  task  of  the  investigator. 

His  neighbours  are  quickly  conscious  of  his 
faults  because  he  is  not  yet  schooled  in  the  art  of 
suppressing  them,  and  his  virtues  are  often  un- 
recognized because  they  shine  the  brightest  in 


THE  JEW  in  his  OLD  WORLD  HOME   131 

the  inner  circle,  from  which  the  neighbour  is 
usually  excluded  by  mutual  consent. 

In  Northern  Africa  we  find  him  to-day  just 
as  he  was  thirty-five  or  forty  years  ago  when  Sir 
Moses  Montefiore  tried  to  alleviate  his  inhuman 
treatment  and  his  impoverished  and  miserable 
condition.  The  Moors  without  knowing  the 
prophecy  concerning  the  fate  of  Israel  are  actively 
engaged  in  fulfilling  it  with  a  cruel  literalness. 
In  every  city  and  village  the  Jews  have  their 
separate  quarters  and  their  own  judges. 

They  are  not  permitted  to  study  the  reading 
and  writing  of  Arabic  lest  their  eyes  defile  the 
sacred  pages  of  the  Koran  ;  they  are  not  allowed 
to  ride  a  horse  although  they  may  ride  a  donkey ; 
and  they  must  walk  barefooted  before  the 
mosques. 

They  are  prohibited  from  going  near  a  well 
when  a  Mussulman  is  drinking,  and  must  wear 
black,  a  colour  despised  by  the  Moors. 

The  men  are  all  ugly  because  of  the  abject 
fear  on  their  faces;  their  eyes  are  always  cast 
down  and  their  walk  is  unsteady  while  the  whole 
posture  is  expressive  of  the  worst  kind  of  slavery. 

They  may  be  beaten,  kicked  and  spit  upon  at 
any  time  without  being  able  to  protect  them- 
selves or  even  having  the  spirit  to  do  it. 

The  women  are  unusually  handsome  and  some 
of  the  homes  are  splendidly  furnished  and  are 
hospitably  opened  to  the  traveller.  The  same 


132  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

conditions  existed  in  Algiers  until  it  passed  under 
the  rule  of  France,  when  the  Jews  asserted  their 
superiority  and  became  landowners,  manufac- 
turers and  business  men,  so  that  nearly  half  of 
the  property  in  Algiers  is  said  to  be  in  their 
hands,  for  which  they  are  again  beginning  to 
feel  hatred  and  persecution. 

The  Egyptian  Jews  are  found  only  in  the  two 
cities  of  Cairo  and  Alexandria ;  but  they  have 
followed  the  victorious  arms  of  England  and  have 
entered  the  heart  of  Africa  where  in  Khartum 
and  the  fabled  Timbuctoo  there  are  Jewish  com- 
munities. 

In  Asia  Minor  the  largest  Jewish  population 
outside  of  Jerusalem  is  in  Smyrna ;  where  there 
are  over  thirty  thousand  in  the  city  and  vicinity. 
These  Jews,  like  those  of  Morocco,  are  descendants 
of  Spanish  fugitives  and  are  considered,  even  by 
their  enemies,  honest  and  industrious,  perform- 
ing the  commonest  and  hardest  labour. 

Jerusalem  remains  to  this  day  the  unhappiest 
city  in  the  world  for  the  Jew,  who  sees  in  it  his 
glorious  past  and  his  present  shame,  and  who 
must  feel  the  pangs  of  persecution  most  in  the 
city  in  which  once  he  was  master  and  lord. 

Highly  interesting  is  the  story  of  the  Jews  in 
China.  That  they  existed  there,  was  known  as 
early  as  the  sixteenth  century  when  the  Jesuit, 
Ricci,  found  them  in  Khai  Fung  Fu,  the  old 
capital  of  Honan. 


THE  JEW  in  his  OLD  WORLD  HOME   133 

How  they  came  to  China  is  not  definitely 
known,  but  according*  to  Chinese  history  they 
came  as  far  back  as  58  B.  C. 

In  1848  they  were  found  by  some  English  mis- 
sionaries, who  reported  their  synagogues  in  ruins 
and  the  Jews  unable  to  read  the  one  scroll  of  the 
law  which  remained.  At  present  there  are  only 
about  twenty  families  left,  and  but  a  few  years 
ago,  a  number  of  Jews  came  from  the  interior  to 
Shanghai,  to  be  taught  Hebrew  by  the  English 
Jews  and  to  have  the  rite  of  circumcision  per- 
formed. 

The  real  Jewish  world,  and  that  which  touches 
our  own  each  day  is  in  the  eastern  part  of 
Europe ;  in  Hungary,  Poland,  Russia  and 
Roumania. 

While  most  of  the  Jews  in  the  south  of  Europe 
and  Asia  are  the  descendants  of  Spanish  Jews, 
from  whom  they  inherit  a  peculiar  language  and 
certain  tendencies  of  worship  and  belief, — those 
of  Eastern  Europe  are  nearly  all  under  the 
cultural  influences  of  Germany,  whose  language 
they  speak,  in  a  more  or  less  corrupt  form.  They 
left  Germany  because  of  the  persecutions  of  the 
middle  ages  and  settled  among  the  Slavs,  where 
they  have  lived  for  many  centuries ;  never  quite 
sure  of  an  abiding  place,  and  suffering  ever  re- 
curring persecutions  of  varying  degrees  of  in- 
tensity. 

The  Jews  of  Bohemia,  whose  spiritual  centre 


134  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

was  the  Ghetto  of  the  city  of  Prague,  as  well  as 
the  Jews  of  Hungary,  exhibit  certain  liberal  tend- 
encies in  their  faith,  and  are  midway  between 
orthodox  and  reformed  Judaism.  They  are  gen- 
erally classed  among  German  Jews,  while  the 
Jews  of  Poland,  Lithuania  and  Bessarabia,  are 
classed  with  the  Russian  Jews,  by  far  the  largest 
number,  and  the  one  great  source  of  Jewish  im- 
migration to  this  country. 

The  cause  of  this  immigration  is  found  in  the 
persecutions,  not  new  in  the  history  of  Israel, 
but  like  death,  always  holding  a  new  terror. 

In  Russia  the  horrors  of  these  persecutions  are 
shared  by  other  non-Russians,  yet  there  is  in  the 
Jewish  persecutions  an  element  of  hatred  and 
contempt  which  makes  them  exceptionally  gall- 
ing, and  affects  not  only  the  Jews'  civic,  social 
and  economic  condition  but  their  self-respect 
also.  They  are  classed  with  the  Kalmuks,  the 
Samoyedes,  the  Kirghese  and  other  aboriginal 
tribes  of  low  mental  capacity  and  still  lower 
standards  of  civilization  ;  while  not  sharing  with 
them  their  legal  status,  being  as  Jews,  regarded 
as  outlaws,  for  whom  special  repressive  legisla- 
tion is  necessary. 

Above  all  else,  these  laws  tend  to  keep  them 
within  the  pale,  which  pale  is  the  old  kingdom 
of  Poland,  and  the  western  provinces  originally 
belonging  to  Poland.  On  this  territory  which  is 
by  far  the  smaller  portion  of  European  Russia, 


THE  JEW  in  his  OLD  WORLD  HOME    135 

over  5,000,000  Jews  are  virtually  imprisoned,  en- 
trance into  the  larger  Russia  being  permitted 
only  to : 

1.  Merchants  of  the  first  class,  who  have  to 
pay  an  annual  tax  of  nearly  $500. 

2.  Professional    men    who    have    university 
diplomas.     As,  however,  of  the  entire  number  of 
pupils  admitted  to  the  higher  schools  only  from 
five  to  ten  per  cent,  are  permitted  to  be  Jews, 
this  class  is  very  small. 

3.  Old  soldiers  who  have  served  twenty-five 
years  in  the  army. 

4.  Students  of  higher  education. 

5.  Apothecaries,  dentists,  surgeons  and  mid- 
wives. 

6.  Skilled  artisans,  who   have  no  legal  resi- 
dence outside  the  pale  but  who  may  follow  their 
vocation  anywhere,  provided  they  earn  their  liv- 
ing by  their  trade,  and  that  they  are  members  of 
their  trade  guilds ;  a  privilege  rarely  granted  to 
Jews. 

Worst  of  all  is  the  element  of  uncertainty  as  to 
the  interpretation  and  operation  of  the  laws, 
which  are  now  lax,  now  severe,  but  always  means 
of  extortion  and  a  recognized  avenue  of  income 
for  numerous  officials. 

The  greatest  hardship  suffered  comes  from  the 
fact  that  in  the  villages,  only  those  residents  who 
were  there  prior  to  a  certain  date,  are  permitted 
to  remain  ;  while  the  vast  majority  is  herded  to- 


136  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

gether  in  the  city  Ghettos,  which  offer  but  a 
scant  living  to  the  normal  population. 

The  Jewish  part  of  the  city,  the  Ghetto,  is  in- 
variably sunk  in  mud  or  dust,  according  as 
there  is  rain  or  sunshine,  and  is  the  picture  of 
melancholia.  Cadaverous  men  in  long,  black, 
greasy  cloaks,  countless  children  and  women, 
who  alone  carry  sunshine ;  for  in  the  Jewish 
woman's  heart  the  hope  of  giving  birth  to  the 
Messiah  is  not  yet  dead. 

All  of  these  people  are  narrow  chested,  with 
the  melancholy  eyes  deep  set ;  they  have  long 
bodies  and  short  limbs  with  which  they  make 
ambling  strides  like  the  camel  in  the  desert. 

It  is  a  haggling,  bargaining,  pushing,  crowd- 
ing, seething  mass ;  ugly  in  its  environment, 
hard  for  the  stranger  to  love,  cowed  by  fear,  un- 
manned by  persecution ;  a  thing  to  jeer  at,  to 
ridicule,  to  plunder  and  to  kill. 

This  is  no  apology  for  the  Jew.  He  carries 
the  faults  and  the  sins  of  ages ;  not  only  his 
own,  but  those  of  his  persecutors  also.  He  is 
himself  the  keenest  critic  of  racial  faults,  and 
once  awakened  to  them  hates  them  and  his 
race  most  unmercifully.  His  people  are  greedy, 
greasy,  and  pushing,  or  doggedly  humble  ;  as 
might  be  expected  of  hunted  human  beings, 
who  for  2,000  years  have  known  no  peace, 
wherever  the  cross  overshadowed  them.  They 
could  escape  torment  in  a  moment  by  having  a 


THE  JEW  in  his  OLD  WORLD  HOME   137 

lew  drops  of  holy  water  sprinkled  over  them, 
for  baptism  opens  to  all,  the  door  of  opportun- 
ity. Whatever  else  may  have  died,  the  ancient 
fire  is  not  dead  in  them,  and  they  prefer  to 
suffer,  to  die,  if  need  be,  rather  than  to  enter 
a  so-called  Christian  church  through  the  door  of 
expediency.  Sometimes  that  door  has  to  be 
entered,  but  the  Jews  who  enter  it  are  still  Jews, 
and  often  they  suffer  agonies  of  mind  and  of 
spirit,  to  which  persecution  might  be  prefer- 
able. 

A  friend  of  mine  in  Moscow,  a  manufacturer 
of  tobacco,  who  had  lived  in  that  city  for  thirty 
years,  received  sudden  notice  to  dispose  of  his 
business  and  leave  the  city.  He  was  prosperous, 
his  children  were  going  to  school,  they  knew  no 
home  but  Moscow,  and  the  town  to  which  they 
were  to  go  was  in  the  crowded  Jewish  pale 
which  he  had  left  as  a  child. 

He  and  his  family  were  baptized,  he  became  a 
full-fledged  Russian,  with  all  the  rights  of  citi- 
zenship, and  his  business  went  on  as  usual. 

Soon  afterwards,  however,  he  became  de- 
pressed, the  depression  increasing  each  time 
that  he  had  to  take  part  in  religious  ceremonies 
which  were  hateful  to  him,  and  it  was  not  long 
before  he  grew  violently  insane. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  as  soon  as  the  Jewish 
disabilities  are  removed,  most  of  those  who  have 
entered  the  Greek  Church  will  return  to  the 


138  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

faith  of  their  fathers  which  they  have  never 
really  left. 

It  is  said  in  Moscow  of  a  certain  Jew,  that 
after  the  priest  had  instructed  him  in  the  cate- 
chism, he  asked  :  "  Now  what  do  you  believe  ?  " 
and  he  replied :  "  I  believe  that  now  I  shall  not 
have  to  leave  Moscow." 

Much  more  than  this,  these  so-called  con- 
verted Jews  do  not  and  cannot  believe. 

Most  of  them  prefer  to  live  in  dirty  little 
hovels,  hungry  and  wretched,  to  brood  over 
the  ancient  lore,  the  Psalms  of  David,  the 
prophets'  messages  from  God,  the  law  of  Moses 
and  the  sayings  of  the  sages.  Day  and  night, 
while  hunger  gnaws  and  poverty  oppresses,  they 
look  to  Jehovah  and  fast  and  mourn  and  believe. 

Minsk,  Wilna,  Kovno,  and  Warsaw  contain 
Jewries  in  which  from  80,000  to  200,000  souls 
are  living — no  one  knows  how  ;  two-thirds  by 
manual  labour,  the  commonest  and  the  coarsest, 
for  the  lowest  wage.  To-morrow's  bread  is 
always  an  unknown  quantity,  and  these  people 
do  "  Walk  by  faith  and  not  by  sight."  No 
labour  is  too  heavy  or  too  dirty  ;  and  the  mourn- 
ful Jewish  face  will  look  out  at  you  from  the 
pit  of  a  mine,  from  under  a  burden  of  wood 
or  water,  from  the  margin  of  the  river  as  boats 
are  unloaded,  or  from  the  seat  of  a  miserable 
cab,  whose  horse  and  driver  are  alike  most 
pitiable.  Because  of  their  weak  bodies  they  are 


THE  JEW  in  his  OLD  WORLD  HOME   139 

not  regarded  as  good  labourers,  except  at  tai- 
loring. 

Locked  in  the  city,  hampered  in  their  move- 
ments by  unreasonable  laws,  groaning  under 
taxes  too  heavy  to  be  borne,  the  government, 
labour,  religion — life  itself  a  burden,  they  are 
living  Egypt  over  again,  waiting  and  praying 
for  their  deliverance.  Why  are  they  persecuted  ? 
Can  any  one  answer  that  question  ?  Has  any 
one  yet  found  the  reason  for  blind  hate,  that 
blindest  of  all, — the  hate  of  race  ?  They  are 
hated  because  they  are  supposed  to  be  rich  ; 
yet  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  them  are  poorer 
than  Chinese  coolies. 

They  are  hated  because  they  have  strange 
customs,  because  they  hold  themselves,  in  a 
large  measure,  aloof  from  the  common  life. 
How  can  they  be  anything  but  strangers  to  the 
adherents  of  a  religion  who  choose  a  holy  day, 
the  day  of  resurrection,  to  kill  them?  Easter 
time  is  almost  invariably  the  time  of  persecu- 
tion. How  can  they  be  other  than  strangers 
to  a  church,  the  ringing  of  whose  bells  marks 
the  carnage  of  hundreds  of  thousands — mur- 
dered for  the  glory  of  Jesus — a  Jew. 

How  can  they  be  anything  but  strangers  to  a 
government  whose  officials  will  step  among  the 
mobs  to  encourage  them,  shouting :  "  Steady 
boys,  keep  it  up." 

They  are  hated  by  the  government  because 


140  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

they  are  supposed  to  be  revolutionists.  If  only 
they  were !  The  masses  of  the  Jews  are  so 
cowed  by  fear  that  they  are  unmanned.  They 
do  not  know  the  use  of  a  weapon.  Here  and 
there  a  Jew,  alert  and  keen,  sees  his  misery  and 
is  brave  enough  to  defend  himself.  Many  of 
them  advocate  Socialism  ;  it  attracts  them  be- 
cause it  knows  no  race,  because  it  preaches  a 
certain  kind  of  peace,  because  it  is  a  brother- 
hood. The  Jew  does  not  find  in  the  orthodox 
church  the  meek  and  lowly  Nazarene,  because 
the  Messiah  whom  the  church  preaches,  is 
masked  behind  church  millinery;  because  the 
representative  of  the  lowly  Nazarene  sits  upon 
the  throne  of  the  haughtiest  autocrat,  and  be- 
cause the  cross  is  an  ornament  and  not  an  ele- 
ment in  the  salvation  of  men. 

The  Jew  in  Russia  is  persecuted  because  he  is 
supposed  to  use  the  blood  of  Gentile  children  for 
his  passover.  This  false  accusation  has  followed 
him  through  the  years,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
those  who  promulgated  it  knew  that  it  was  false. 
The  shedding  of  human  blood  was  never  one  of 
Israel's  crimes,  and  killing  is  a  desire  which  the 
Jew  lost  long  ago,  having  never  been  a  master 
in  this  art. 

Frankly,  the  root  of  this  persecution  of  the 
Jews  is  found  in  their  superior  ability  to  cope 
with  the  difficulties  of  existence  in  Russia,  in 
their  thrift  and  shrewdness  which  know  no 


ISRAELITES  INDEED. 

The  root  of  the  persecution  of  the  Russian  Jew  is  found  in  his  superior 
ability  to  cope  with  the  difficulties  of  existence,  in  his  thrift  and  shrewdness 
which  know  no  bounds. 


THE  JEW  in  his  OLD  WORLD  HOME    141 

bounds  and  which  have  almost  crushed  in  them 
their  spiritual  longings,  making  them  a  byword 
among  the  nations. 

But  a  new  inspiration  has  come  to  the  Jews  of 
Eastern  Europe  through  the  Zionistic  movement ; 
a  revival  of  Jewish  nationalism,  a  desire  to  win 
back  the  lost  Palestine, — the  Fatherland  of  their 
spiritual  sires. 

The  way  back  to  Palestine  is  a  difficult  one 
and  neither  their  Maccabean  spirit  nor  the  wealth 
they  accumulate  may  avail  them  as  a  nation,  to 
reach  their  goal.  But  the  way  there  is  beautiful, 
the  dream  is  glorious  and  the  spiritual  and  phys- 
ical miracles  wrought  among  the  wealthiest  and 
the  poorest  of  them  are  remarkable.  A  new 
literature  and  a  new  psalmody  are  being  born,  a 
new  Maccabean  spirit  is  filling  the  emaciated 
bodies  of  these  sons  of  Israel,  and  one  of  them 
sings,  and  he  but  one  of  thousands : 

"Arise,  and  shine,  Jerusalem, 
In  costly  jewelled  diadem  ; 
Put  off  thy  ash  strewn  garb  of  gray, 
In  glorious  dress,  thyself  array. 

"Jehovah  made  thy  people  free ; 
Now  that  they  long  for  liberty. 
At  end  is  all  thy  suffering  night, 
Jerusalem,  send  forth  thy  light. 

"  A  note  of  ancient  psalmody 
Fills  heaven  and  earth  with  melody ; 


142  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

A  sacrifice  of  grateful  praise 
From  altars  old,  we  now  upraise, 

"  And  God  looks  pleased  from  glory  down, 
His  smile  oh  !  Israel  is  thy  crown. 
Put  off  thy  ashen  garb  of  gray, 
Jerusalem,  see  thy  glorious  day." 

But  for  a  long  time  to  come,  this  Jerusalem 
will  have  to  be  New  York,  and  their  Palestine, 
America. 

One  can  but  hope  that  the  Jew  will  so  live  and 
act,  as  to  become  one  with  the  highest  ideals  of 
his  new  country,  and  so  unwrap  himself  from 
ancient  faults  that  in  the  truest  sense,  Jerusalem 
will  be  the  "  Bride  adorned  for  her  bridegroom," 
and  the  city  come  down  from  heaven  among 
men,  in  whose  midst  the  reign  of  God  will  be  an 
acknowledged  fact. 


THE  NEW  EXODUS 

IN  a  little  studio  on  the  West  side  of  New  York, 
a  Jewish  sculptor  modelled  the  clay  for  a  medal 
upon  which  he  was  to  engrave  for  grateful  Israel, 
the  memorial  of  its  settlement  in  America  two 
and  a  half  centuries  ago.  The  face  of  the  medal 
bore  the  veiled  form  of  Justice,  casting  the  evil 
spirit  of  Intolerance  from  his  throne  and  placing 
upon  it  the  Goddess  of  Liberty,  who  is  bestowing 
on  all  alike  the  rich  gifts  in  her  keeping.  On  the 
reverse  side  of  the  medal,  Victory  is  engraving 
the  date  1655,  the  year  of  the  landing  of  the 
Jewish  forefathers.  The  Victory  modelled  by 
this  Jewish  genius  is  not  the  triumphant,  over- 
bearing, conquering  spirit ;  but  in  her  noble  form 
are  embodied  graciousness,  determination  and  a 
sincere  gratitude. 

At  the  celebration  of  the  25Oth  anniversary  of 
the  landing  of  the  Jews  in  America,  held  in 
Carnegie  Hall  on  Thanksgiving  day,  November 
30,  1905,  these  feelings  were  given  utterance  in 
various  ways  by  various  persons ;  but  by  none 
more  truly  than  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  Silver- 
man,  in  his  opening  prayer. 

"  We  thank  Thee  for  America,  this  haven  of 


144  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

refuge  for  the  oppressed  of  the  world.  We 
thank  Thee  for  the  blessings  of  a  permanent 
home  in  this  country,  its  opportunities  for 
development  of  life  and  advancement  of  mind 
and  heart,  for  its  independence  and  unity,  its  free 
institutions,  the  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness.  We  reverently  bow  before 
Thy  decree,  which  has  taught  us  to  find  endur- 
ing peace  and  security  in  the  sure  foundation  of 
this  blessed  land." 

The  Jewish  pioneers  were  cultured  and  far  trav- 
elled men,  who  came  from  Portugal,  Holland  and 
England  and  their  provinces.  They  were  imbued 
by  the  adventurous  spirit  of  the  people  whom 
they  had  left,  in  order  to  seek  the  undiscovered 
paths  of  the  sea  which  led  to  fabled  wealth. 

It  is  no  wonder  if,  at  that  early  period  when 
Jewish  persecutions  were,  at  their  height  and  the 
Jewish  name  under  the  darkest  cloud,  they  had 
difficulty  in  gaining  free  entrance  to  their  desired 
haven,  and  that  the  charter  which  was  granted 
them  was  given  grudgingly.  It  reads  thus : 

"  26th  of  April,  1655. 

"We  would  have  liked  to  agree  to  your 
wishes  and  request  that  the  new  territories  should 
not  be  further  invaded  by  people  of  the  Jewish 
race,  for  we  foresee  from  such  immigration  the 
same  difficulties  which  you  fear,  but  after  having 
further  weighed  and  considered  the  matter,  we 


THE  NEW  EXODUS  145 

observe  that  iv  would  be  unreasonable  and  un- 
fair, especially  because  of  the  considerable  loss 
sustained  by  the  Jews  in  the  taking  of  Brazil,  and 
also  because  of  the  large  amount  of  capital 
which  they  have  invested  in  the  shares  of  this 
company.1  After  many  consultations  we  have 
decided  and  resolved  upon  a  certain  petition 
made  by  said  Portuguese  Jews,  that  they  shall 
have  permission  to  sail  to  and  trade  in  New 
Netherlands  and  to  live  and  remain  there,  pro- 
vided the  poor  among  them  shall  not  become  a 
burden  to  the  company  or  the  community,  but 
be  supported  by  their  own  nation.  You  will 
govern  yourself  accordingly." 

These  Jews,  true  to  their  religious  instincts, 
built  synagogues  wherever  they  settled  and  were 
called  Sephardic  Congregations.  Until  the  be- 
ginning of  the  nineteenth  century,  they  were  the 
dominating  religious  and  cultural  type,  and  while 
yet  retaining  certain  racial  characteristics,  they 
blended  into  the  national  life,  having  no  small 
share  in  its  development. 

With  the  coming  to  this  country  of  the  Ger- 
man peasantry,  there  was  brought  from  the  vil- 
lages and  towns  a  not  inconsiderable  number  of 
Jews,  who  scattered  through  the  North  and  South 
upon  all  the  highways  of  commerce,  and  who 
finally  became  the  second  strata  of  the  Jewish  life 

1  The  Dutch  West  India  Company. 


I46  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

in  America.  At  first,  they  were  more  or  less  amal- 
gamated with  the  Portuguese  Jews,  but  as  their 
numbers  grew  overwhelmingly  great,  they 
developed  their  religious  and  social  life  after  their 
own  traditions  and  were  distinguished  from  their 
Sephardic  brethren  by  the  generic  name  "  Ash- 
kenazim"  (Germans). 

Within  this  group  developed  the  German  Re- 
form movement,  which  has  in  greater  or  less 
degree  attracted  all  the  Germanic  Jews,  and 
from  which  the  merely  traditional  and  ritualistic 
element  has  quite  disappeared  ;  so  that  at  the 
present  time  it  is  not  far  removed  from  Unitarian- 
ism  in  faith  and  practice.  Later,  when  the 
population  of  the  Eastern  portion  of  Europe 
found  its  way  across  the  sea,  under  the  impulse 
of  great  nationalistic  movements  in  Austria, 
Hungary  and  Poland,  a  new  factor  was  introduced 
into  the  Jewish  communities,  which  brought 
with  it  Rabbinistic  lore  and  faithfulness  to  the 
traditions  of  the  Elders,  and  this  factor  tended 
to  strengthen  the  Jewish  consciousness.  In  after 
years  a  good  portion  of  this  group  attached  it- 
self to  the  Reform  movement  and  cannot  be  dif- 
ferentiated from  the  Germanic  group  ;  while  the 
residue  has  become  the  link  between  it  and  the 
overwhelmingly  large  mass  of  Russian  Jews, 
which  was  to  come  and  which  now  forms  the 
greatest  proportion  of  the  Jewish  population. 

This  Russian  Jewish  group  is  not  easily  ana- 


THE  NEW  EXODUS  147 

lyzed  ;  it  is  neither  heterogeneous  nor  homoge- 
neous ;  it  is  Polish,  Roumanian,  Lithuanian, 
Bessarabian  and  Galician.  It  is  steeped  in  tra- 
ditionalism, overburdened  by  ritualistic  laws, 
loaded  by  the  fetters  of  Rabbinism,  held  under 
the  spell  of  Kabalism  and  Wonder  Rabbis, 
swayed  now  by  this  teacher  and  now  by  that 
one.  It  has  no  common  centre  or  common  aim, 
and  has  not  analyzed  itself  nor  its  environment. 
Strongly  individualistic,  its  members  are  united 
to  one  another  and  to  the  other  groups,  only  by 
their  common  misfortune,  an  indefinable  racial 
consciousness ;  intellectually  and  culturally,  far 
below  the  other  groups,  it  bears  the  marks  of 
oppression  and  of  the  oppressor  in  its  thought 
and  in  its  action.  Nevertheless,  it  is  destined  to 
be  the  determining  influence  in  the  future  of 
Judaism  in  America,  and  as  such,  deserves 
special  study  and  consideration. 

The  Jewish  population  may  be  divided  into 
four  large  groups,  some  of  which  are  subdivided. 
I.  The  Sephardic  or  Spanish-Portuguese  Jews, 
who  have  not  retained  their  native  speech,  but 
who  have  preserved  certain  peculiarities  in  their 
worship,  and  distinctive  ritualistic  forms  which 
are  dignified  and  stately.  The  Hebrew  language 
which  they  use  in  their  service  is  pronounced  in 
a  peculiar  way  and  in  better  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  the  language  than  one  hears  elsewhere. 
They  are  the  real  aristocracy  among  the  Jews ; 


148  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

rarely  poor,  with  much  of  old  time  Spanish  pride 
remaining  in  their  bearing  and  expressed  in  their 
attitude  towards  the  other  Jewish  groups.  They 
are  centred  almost  entirely  in  the  Eastern  cities, 
where  they  are  found  in  the  upper  world  of 
finance  and  in  business  and  professional  life.1 
The  second  group,  the  "  Ashkenazim "  or  Ger^ 
man  Jews,  has  most  quickly  adjusted  itself  to 
the  life  in  America  and  has  developed  what 
might  be  called  an  American  Judaism,  in  which 
liberal  tendencies  have  prevailed  and  have  played 
havoc  with  the  traditions  of  the  past,  very  often 
at  the  expense  of  the  spirit  of  Judaism.  Some  of 
these  congregations  have  made  Sunday  the  Sab- 
bath of  their  week,  and  the  service  is  conducted 
in  the  English  language  with  the  Hebrew  almost 
entirely  eliminated.  Out  of  this  group  have 
come  most  of  the  prominent  Jews  in  the  United 
States,  and  in  nearly  every  community  of  any 
size  we  find  German  Jews,  engaged  in  reputable 
business,  most  often  owning  dry  goods  or  clothing 
stores.2 

The  third  group  is  composed  of  Austrian  and 
Hungarian  Jews  many  of  whom  have  remained 
orthodox  without  being  slavishly  attached  to 
Rabbinism  ;  while  their  congregations  are  usually 
upon  what  is  called  the  "  Status  Quo "  basis, 

1  This  group  is  receiving  scarcely  any  additions  through  emigration. 
9  The  decrease  of  German  emigration  has  had  its  effect  in  lessening 
the  numbers  of  this  group. 


THE  NEW  EXODUS  149 

which   is   neither    extremely  orthodox    nor  re- 
formed, and  consequently  is  sterile. 

They  are  apt  to  be  more  clannish  than  the 
German  Jews,  grouping  themselves  into  centres 
according  to  the  districts  from  which  they  come, 
strongly  retaining  the  characteristics  of  the  races 
among  which  they  lived  so  long,  and  bringing 
with  them  many  of  the  antagonisms  engendered 
in  that  conglomerate  of  nationalities,  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  monarchy.  This  is  especially  true  of 
the  Hungarian  Jews  who  have  become  convivial, 
like  the  Magyars,  and  are  not  over  fond  of  work. 
The  coffee  houses  of  "  Little  Hungary  "  in  New 
York,  draw  their  revenue  largely  from  these  Jews, 
to  whom  life  without  the  coffee  house  would  not 
seem  worth  the  living,  and  for  whom  each  day 
must  hold  its  pause  for  a  friendly  game  of  cards 
or  billiards,  and  a  pull  at  a  long  and  strong  black 
cigar.  Among  them  are  shrewd  traders,  pawn- 
brokers and  a  very  small  proportion  of  peddlers  ; 
although  the  occupation  of  peddler  entails  a 
position  not  agreeable  to  their  proud  spirits.  In 
a  larger  degree  than  the  other  groups  mentioned, 
they  are  engaged  in  mechanical  labour,  being 
wood  and  metal  workers,  and  makers  of  artificial 
flowers  and  passementerie.  In  these  trades  they 
have  attained  real  proficiency.  They  are  not  so 
well  distributed  as  the  German  Jews,  and  are 
found  largely  in  New  York  with  a  slowly  increas- 
ing number  in  Chicago  and  St.  Louis.  They 


150  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

have  brought  with  them  many  of  the  looser  ways 
of  such  cities  as  Vienna  and  Budapest ;  there- 
fore they  are  less  thrifty  than  the  Russian  Jews 
and  less  intelligent  than  those  from  Germany. 
Their  Judaism  is  apt  to  sit  very  lightly  upon 
them,  as  they  have  neither  the  spiritual  vision  of 
the  first  group,  nor  the  ethical  conception  of  re- 
ligion which  the  second  group  possesses.  Racially 
they  are  also  less  conscious  of  Judaism,  and  easily 
intermarry  with  Gentiles  or  lose  themselves 
among  them  where  their  physique  does  not  be- 
tray them.  A  Hungarian  Jew  usually  prefers  to 
be  called  a  Magyar ;  yet  I  know  of  many  in- 
stances where  that  fact  was  stoutly  denied, 
though  undoubtedly  the  Magyar  spirit  was 
grafted  upon  Semitic  stock. 

The  last  and  largest  group,  the  Russian  Jews, 
the  youngest  army  of  the  immigrants,  is  ultra 
orthodox,  yet  ultra  radical ;  chained  to  the  past, 
and  yet  utterly  severed  from  it ;  with  religion 
permeating  every  act  of  life,  or  going  to  the 
other  extreme,  and  having  "  none  of  it "  ;  traders 
by  instinct,  and  yet  among  the  hardest  manual 
labourers  of  our  great  cities.  A  complex  mass 
in  which  great  things  are  yearning  to  express 
themselves,  a  brooding  mass  which  does  not 
know  itself  and  does  not  lightly  disclose  itself  to 
the  outsider. 

More  broken  into  individualistic  groups  than 
the  Austrians  and  Hungarians,  they  have  the 


THE  NEW  EXODUS  151 

strongest  racial  consciousness,  and  perhaps  are 
also  the  depository  of  the  greatest  Jewish  genius. 
The  synagogue  is  the  centre  of  each  provincial 
or  village  group  gathered  in  some  Ghetto  and, 
being  subject  to  no  ecclesiastical  law  outside  of 
itself,  is  thoroughly  Congregational.  These 
synagogues  vary  in  size  and  untidiness  as  the 
services  vary  in  monotony  and  disorder.  Each 
man  prays  or  chants  as  fast  or  as  slowly,  as 
high  or  as  low,  as  he  pleases.  Naturally,  the 
effect  is  not  harmonious,  neither  is  there  much 
harmony  in  the  administration  of  ecclesiastical 
affairs. 

Rabbi,  Cantor  and  Shochet  (the  official  slaugh- 
terer) are  usually  out  with  each  other  and  with 
various  members  of  the  congregation,  and  quar- 
rels during  service  are  not  unknown.  While  the 
worship  seems  fervent,  it  is  often  spiritless,  and 
only  a  small  portion  of  the  Russian  Jewish  pop- 
ulation works  seriously  at  the  business  of  its  or- 
ganized religious  life.  The  younger  generation 
has  much  unsatisfied  longing  for  the  real  spir- 
itual life,  and  there  are  a  few  Jewish  Endeavour 
Societies  entirely  apart  from  the  synagogues, 
in  which  this  spirit  expresses  itself.  A  still  larger 
number  of  the  young  people  have  slowly  but  surely 
drifted  into  complete  antagonism  to  the  faith  of 
their  fathers,  and  here  lies  the  great  conflict  as 
well  as  the  great  problem. 

Nothing  in  the  whole  story  of  immigration  is 


152  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

so  pathetic  as  this  growing  breach  between  the 
old  and  the  new  ;  this  ever  widening  gulf  which 
is  not  being  bridged. 

The  Ethical  Culture  Society  has  a  hold,  al- 
though not  a  very  vital  one,  upon  a  small  num- 
ber ;  and  here  and  there  one  or  the  other  of  the 
young  people  drifts  into  a  Christian  church, 
but  this  makes  no  serious  impression  upon  the 
mass. 

Zionism  has  become  the  strong  rallying  point 
for  many  of  them,  and  has  gathered  into  its 
various  lodges  much  of  the  radical  element, 
which  is  coming  back  to  the  law  and  the  proph- 
ets by  the  way  of  an  awakened  consciousness. 

The  Russian  Jews  are  the  busiest  of  our  alien 
population,  and  although  at  first  among  the 
poorest,  a  respectable  middle  class  is  growing  up, 
and  is  marching  towards  wealth,  if  not  as  yet 
enrolled  among  the  millionaires. 

Of  the  total  of  600,000  Jews  in  New  York 
City,  nearly  100,000  are  engaged  in  various 
branches  of  the  clothing  industry,  and  in  me- 
chanical and  manufacturing  pursuits.  This  is  a 
remarkable  showing  for  people  who  nearly  all 
had  to  adjust  themselves  to  manual  labour  for 
which  they  were  not  physically  fitted,  and  which 
they  had  no  opportunity  to  perform  in  Russia. 

In  the  trades  which  they  have  entered  they 
usually  maintain  a  satisfactory  wage,  and  cannot 
be  regarded  as  a  serious  economic  menace  If 


THE  NEW  EXODUS  153 

they  remain  crowded  in  the  Ghettos  of  the  East- 
ern cities,  it  is  due,  not  so  much  to  their  gre- 
garious habits  and  to  the  needs  springing  from 
their  religious  observances,  as  it  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  trades  in  which  they  find  readiest 
employment  are  here  concentrated,  and  the 
wages  most  satisfying.  The  needle  above  all 
else  is  to  blame  for  the  congestion  of  the  Ghetto, 
and  a  great  transformation  must  come  over 
Israel  both  physically  and  mentally,  before  the 
needle  will  be  exchanged  for  the  plow. 


XI 

IN  THE  GHETTOS  OF  NEW  YORK 

AT  last  we  are  free,  although  still  upon  Uncle 
Sam's  ferry  boat,  which  carries  those  of  us  who 
have  passed  muster,  to  the  Battery,  the  gateway 
into  the  gigantic  city  and  the  vast  country  which 
lies  beyond  where,  "  sans  ceremonie,"  we  are 
landed. 

Boarding  house  "  Runners  "  call  out  the  names 
of  their  hostelries,  express  men  entreat  us  to  en- 
trust to  them  our  belongings,  the  voice  of  the 
banana  peddler  is  heard  in  the  land,  and  through 
the  babel  of  sounds  there  arise  the  joyous  shrieks 
of  those  who  welcome  their  dear  ones. 

Over  in  Hoboken,  where  the  cool-blooded 
Anglo-Saxon  awaits  his  wife,  who  "  toiled  not 
neither  did  she  spin  "  during  her  year  abroad, — 
the  joy  remains  unexpressed.  She  may  say  to 
him :  "  Hello,  old  man  ! "  and  he  will  reply : 
"  How  are  you,  old  girl  ?  "  and  that  is  all,  so  far 
as  the  public  knows.  But  here  on  the  Battery, 
where  Jacob  meets  his  Leah,  for  whom  he  has 
toiled  and  suffered  these  five  years,  for  whose 
sake  he  ate  hard  rye  bread  and  onions  that  he 
might  save  money  to  bring  her  to  him  ; — when 
Jacob  meets  his  Leah,  there  are  warm  embraces 

'54 


IN  The  GHETTOS  of  NEW  YORK     155 

and  kisses  through  the  tears.  Here,  men  em- 
brace and  kiss  each  other,  and  children  are  held 
up  to  the  father's  gaze, — fathers  who  left  them  as 
infants  and  now  see  them  grown. 

Half  a  dozen  stalwart  men  and  women  will 
almost  crush  a  little  wrinkled  "  Mutterleben," 
their  mother,  coming  to  them  for  the  sunset  of 
her  life,  which  is  to  be  bright  and  beautiful  after 
many  dark  mornings  and  cloudy  noondays. 

I  attached  myself  to  a  young  Russian  Jew  of 
about  my  own  age,  who  had  no  relatives  waiting 
for  him,  but  who  had  the  address  of  his  parents' 
friends.  They  had  come  here  a  few  years  before, 
and  now  served  as  the  clearing  house  for  that 
particular  district  in  Russia,  of  which  their  native 
town  was  the  centre. 

We  went  up  Broadway,  and  after  plunging  into 
the  whirlpool  of  its  traffic,  emerged  safe  at  the 
City  Hall,  crossed  the  Bowery  and  were  at  the 
edge  of  the  great  Ghetto,  the  heart  of  the  largest 
Jewish  community  in  the  world.  It  numbers 
now  nearly  700,000  souls,  scattered  through  all 
parts  of  Greater  New  York,  and  massed  in  four 
centres,  commonly  called  Ghettos ;  of  which  the 
one  through  which  we  are  passing  is  the  "  Great 
Original "  one.  It  is  less  dirty,  less  suspiciously 
fragrant  than  the  Ghetto  which  my  comrade  has 
left,  and  in  spite  of  squalor  and  visible  signs  of 
poverty,  a  certain  air  of  joyousness  pervades  its 
life  which  is  lacking  in  the  old  home.  The 


156  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

hurdy  gurdy  grinder  lures  nimble  footed  children 
from  block  to  block,  like  the  "  Pied  Piper  of 
Hamelin,"  and  they  are  happier  and  more  grace- 
ful than  the  much  be-starched  children  of  the  rich 
who  take  lessons  in  dancing  and  in  conventional 
deportment. 

The  sidewalks  and  driveways  are  packed  by 
humanity,  most  of  it  children,  for  the  Abrahamitic 
promise  that  his  "  seed  shall  increase  like  the  sands 
of  the  sea"  has  not  yet  departed  from  Israel — only 
the  illustration  is  not  quite  complete,  for  while  the 
Ghetto  children  are  as  numerous  as  the  sands  (I 
counted  almost  two  thousand  in  one  block),  they 
are  not  nearly  so  clean. 

The  language  of  the  Ghetto  is  Yiddish,  a  mix- 
ture of  German,  Hebrew,  and  Russian ;  but  with 
enough  English  mixed  with  it  to  make  the  immi- 
grant halt  before  such  words  as  "gemovet," 
"  gejumpt,"  "  getrusted,"  which  sooner  or  later 
will  become  part  of  his  own  vocabulary. 

Street  signs  are  written  in  Hebrew  letters,  and 
the  passer-by  is  invited  by  them  to  drink  a  glass 
of  soda  for  a  cent,  to  buy  two  "  pananas  "  for  the 
same  sum,  to  purchase  a  prayer-mantle  or 
"  kosher  "  meat,  to  enter  a  beer  saloon  or  a  syna- 
gogue. Many  of  these  signs  are  translated  into 
English,  and  Rabbi  Levinson  on  Cannon  Street 
has  in  large  English  letters,  "  Performer  of  Matri- 
mony ; "  in  the  same  house  one  finds  "  wedding 
dresses  for  hire,"  and  can  have  his  "  picture 


THE  GHETTO  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD. 

East  of  the  Bowery  in  New  York  City  is  the  heart  of  the  largest  Jewish  com- 
munity in  the  world.  Sidewalks,  street  signs,  language,  all  indicate  the  process 
of  development. 


IN  The  GHETTOS  of  NEW  YORK     157 

photographed,"  and  also  may  buy  "  furnitings 
for  pedrooms  and  barlours." 

Everything  is  for  sale  on  the  street,  from  pick- 
led cucumbers  to  feather  beds,  and  almost  all  the 
work  done  in  this  Ghetto  is  done  by  Jewish  work- 
men. There  are  Jewish  plumbers,  locksmiths, 
masons,  and  of  course  tailors ;  and  work  and  trade 
are  the  watchwords  of  the  Ghetto,  where,  in  all 
my  wanderings  through  it,  I  have  not  seen  that 
genus  Americanum,  the  corner  loafer. 

The  prevailing  type  of  dwelling,  even  after 
tenement-house  legislation,  is  much  too  crowded 
and  too  dirty.  The  New  York  Ghetto  looks  re- 
markably decent  from  the  outside,  but  pharisaic 
landlords  have  beautified  the  "  outside  of  the  cup 
and  platter,"  while  within,  the  house  is  poorly 
prepared  for  human  habitation.  A  good  example 
is  the  house  into  which  I  lead  my  friend.  It  is 
an  old  fashioned  front  and  rear  tenement  with 
fifty  families  as  residents,  and  on  climbing  the 
stairway  to  the  fifth  story  to  which  our  address 
directs,  our  nostrils  are  greeted  by  a  fragrance 
which,  compared  with  the  well  remembered 
smells  of  the  steerage,  is  like  unto  the  odours  of 
Araby  the  blest. 

We  come  into  the  kitchen,  where  the  family  of 
nine  is  just  at  dinner ;  two  of  the  number,  a 
husband  and  wife,  are  regular  boardersc  I  doubt 
whether  anywhere  else,  under  similar  circum- 
stances, we  would  have  received  so  genuinely 


158  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

hearty  a  welcome,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
we  were  practically  strangers  to  them,  and 
that  I  had  no  claim  whatever  upon  their  hos- 
pitality. 

One  of  the  children  has  already  been  dispatched 
to  the  nearest  store  to  buy  additional  dainties, 
and  room  is  made  at  the  already  crowded  table 
for  two  very  hungry  adults. 

My  Russian  friend,  amazed  as  he  was  at  the 
turmoil  of  the  streets  and  the  height  of  the  build- 
ings, is  still  more  awed  by  the  sight  of  such  abun- 
dant and  wholesome  food,  to  which  he  may  help 
himself  without  stint.  There  are  large  sweet 
potatoes  which  taste  better  than  cake,  and  are 
permeated  by  the  delicate  flavour  of  nuts ;  they  are 
a  greater  contrast  to  the  small,  gnarly,  scant 
portion  of  potatoes  which  it  has  been  his  lot  to 
eat,  than  any  forty  story  sky  scraper  can  be  to 
the  tumble-down  shanty  in  which  his  father  kept 
store.  Meat, — a  huge  piece  of  meat,  on  his 
plate, — and  in  the  memory  of  his  palate,  only  the 
soft  end  of  a  soup  bone,  as  a  special  delicacy. 
What  a  contrast ! 

"Last,  but  not  least,"  the  pie,  that  apple  pie,  of 
which  he  had  a  whole  one  for  himself  and  knew 
not  how  to  attack  it ;  until  finally,  following  good 
precedent,  he  took  it  into  his  trembling  hands 
and  let  his  joyous  face  disappear  in  its  juicy 
depths.  After  the  dinner,  he  was  catechized,  all 
the  inhabitants  of  the  far  away  town  were  inquired 


IN  The  GHETTOS  of  NEW  YORK     159 

after,  and  the  record  of  the  living  and  the  dead 
told  to  the  news  hungry  hearers. 

What  a  marvellous  group  this  is  !  and  typical  of 
thousands.  The  father  is  a  cloak  presser.  He 
is  a  small,  cadaverous  looking  man  of  very 
gentle  mein,  who  knows  not  much  beyond  the 
fact  that  to-morrow  the  whistle  will  blow,  and  that 
he  will  be  on  the  fifteenth  floor  of  a  great  cloak 
factory,  "  doing  his  allotted  task,"  (God  willing). 
The  enemies  that  await  him  are  many ;  the  red- 
headed Irish  "  Forelady,"  who  looks  hard  after 
the  creases  in  the  cloaks,  and  who  in  turn,  is 
suspected  by  him  of  all  the  evils  in  the  catalogue 
of  sin  ;  the  cloak  designer,  a  Viennese  Jew,  who 
hates  all  Jews,  especially  Russian  Jews,  and  more 
especially  this  particular  one  with  whom,  after 
the  fashion  of  the  Viennese,  he  quarrels  for 
pastime.  His  fellow  cloak  presser,  whose  name 
was  Elijah  and  who  now  calls  himself  Jack,  is  an 
ardent  Socialist,  who  "  pesters  "  my  host  by  his 
economic  theories  which  are  obnoxious  to  him  in 
the  extreme.  "  I  yoost  haf  to  led  him  dalk,"  is 
the  refrain  of  my  host's  complaint.  Our  hostess 
is  corpulent  and  somewhat  untidy  ;  her  horizon 
is  even  more  limited  than  that  of  her  husband. 
She,  too,  works;  she  is  a  skillful  operator,  and 
from  8  A.  M.  until  6  P.  M.  she  hears  nothing  but 
the  whirr  of  the  machine.  She  does  not  even 
have  an  enemy  to  vary  the  monotony  by  her 
Socialistic  doctrines.  The  oldest  daughter  is 


I6o  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

called  Blanche,  although  she  was  named  Re- 
becca; she  too  works,  and  has  worked  for 
several  years,  albeit  she  is  not  past  sixteen.  She 
embroiders  in  a  fashionable  dressmaking  estab- 
lishment on  Broadway,  and  likes  her  place ;  she 
sees  fine  ladies  and  handles  fine  stuffs,  and, 
"  above  all,"  she  says  to  me  in  good  English,  "  I 
don't  have  to  associate  with  Russian  Jews."  She 
reads  good  books, — fiction,  biography,  history — 
everything.  The  two  on  her  shelf  that  evening, 
were  "  Ivanhoe,"  and  "  The  Life  of  Florence 
Nightingale."  Other  children  are  growing  up 
and  going  to  work  soon  ;  so  the  family  is  on  the  up 
grade,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  work  is  not  always 
steady,  that  the  wife's  parents  who  live  with  them 
are  old  and  feeble,  that  the  youngest  child  is 
threatened  by  blindness,  and  that  they  have  paid 
much  money  to  quack  doctors  who  advertise  and 
to  those  who  do  not.  It  was  pathetic  in  the 
extreme  to  see  this  family  crowd  together  to 
make  room  for  us  for  the  night.  My  friend 
slept  on  a  sofa,  the  ribs  of  which  protruded  like 
those  of  Pharaoh's  lean  kine,  and  I  slept  soundly 
on  the  smoother  surface  of  the  floor. 

The  next  day  brought  to  us  the  momentous 
task  of  going  out  to  find  work,  and  before  the 
whistle  blew  for  the  night's  rest,  my  friend  was 
part  of  a  sewing  machine,  while  I  being  stronger, 
was  assigned  to  pressing  cloaks.  My  fellow 
cloak  presser  told  a  piteous  story  of  his  wife  and 


IN  The  GHETTOS  of  NEW  YORK     161 

four  children  on  the  other  side,  who  had  been 
almost  heart-broken  because  he  had  been  here 
two  years  and  been  kept  by  "  hard  luck "  from 
sending  for  them.  I  worked  by  his  side  for  a 
day,  receiving  my  first  lessons  in  cloak-pressing 
from  him,  and  the  last  letter  from  his  wife  was  so 
pathetic,  that  it  drew  tears  from  my  eyes  and 
money  from  my  pocketbook  towards  those  tickets. 
When  the  day's  work  was  over,  and  the  possi- 
bility of  soon  seeing  his  family  was  almost  real- 
ized, he  said  as  we  parted,  "  I  shall  sleep  happily 
to-night ; "  and  so  did  I,  in  spite  of  heat  and  sore 
muscles. 

Rarely  do  these  clothes  pressers  rise  to  a  higher 
place  in  their  trade,  although  occasionally  by 
strict  economy  and  much  hard  labour,  one  may 
own  a  shop  and  "  sweat "  the  "  greener  "  as  he 
has  "  been  sweated." 

In  my  wanderings  through  the  Ghetto  I 
dropped  into  a  pawnshop  on  Avenue  C  one  day, 
and  after  I  made  some  purchases  the  proprietor 
grew  friendly  and  introduced  me  to  his  family. 
He  is  the  happy  father  of  seven  sons,  all  of  them 
"  smart  as  a  whip,"  and  all  of  them  doing  well. 
The  youngest  one,  Charles  T.,  the  smartest,  is 
still  in  school  and,  like  all  the  Yiddish  boys,  at 
the  head  of  his  class.  Charles  T.  knows  every- 
thing, from  Marquis  of  Queensberry  rules  to  the 
schedule  of  lectures  at  the  Educational  Alliance 
building,  "  What  are  you  going  to  be,  Charles  ?  " 


162  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

I  asked.  "  A  business  man  like  my  father ;  "  and 
the  keen  look  in  his  big  eyes,  the  determination 
of  his  whole  frame  and  face,  showed  that  he  would 
succeed  even  better  than  his  father,  who  is  be- 
ginning to  think  of  "  being  at  ease  in  Zion,"  and 
retiring  from  business.  Charles  T.'s  father  be- 
gan life  by  buying  rags  on  Houston  Street ;  his 
sons  will  sell  bonds  on  Wall  Street. 

The  Ghetto  is  not  all  barter  and  manual  labour, 
for  there  are  many  synagogues  in  which  prayers 
are  said  every  day ;  although  only  a  few  of  these 
synagogues  are  anything  more  than  halls  or 
large  rooms  in  tenement  houses,  sometimes  above 
or  below  a  drinking-place  and  in  many  instances 
in  ball  rooms,  which  on  Saturdays  and  holy  days 
put  off  their  unholy  garb. 

If  all  the  population  of  the  Ghetto  attended  to 
its  religious  duties,  these  one  hundred  syna- 
gogues would  have  to  be  increased  to  a  thousand  ; 
but  on  Saturdays  many  have  to  work,  and  in- 
creasingly many  wish  to  work,  so  that  not  twenty 
per  cent,  of  the  Ghetto  population  attend  relig- 
ious services.  However,  on  the  great  feast  days, 
New  Year's  day  and  the  day  of  Atonement,  every- 
body goes ;  or  as  Charles  T.'s  father  would  say  : 
"  I  go  to  the  synagogue  twice  a  year  and  pay  my 

dues,  and  then  I'll  not  have  a thing  to  do  with 

them  for  another  year."  Charles  T.'s  father  is  a 
politician. 

Most  of  the  Ghetto  rabbis  are,  like  Mr.  Levin- 


IN  The  GHETTOS  of  NEW  YORK     163 

son,  "  Performers  of  Matrimony  "  and  not  much 
else ;  they  are  professionally  pious  and  not 
deeply  religious ;  they  have  no  vision  and 
measure  a  man's  religion  by  his  observances  of 
fasts  and  feasts ;  they  are  ignorant  of  all  literature 
except  the  Talmud,  that  treasure  house  of  Jewish 
thought  and  prison-house  of  Jewish  souls.  They 
are  as  superstitious  as  their  constituency,  and 
often  less  honest,  but  in  not  a  few  cases  truly  de- 
vout and  charitable.  There  is  no  ecclesiastical 
control  over  these  rabbis,  and  they  are  in  some 
cases  self-made  men  in  the  worst  sense  of  the 
word,  while  their  influence  upon  the  ethical  life  of 
the  Ghetto  is  almost  "  nil."  They  are  the  Jews' 
law  court  and  judges  in  matters  which  pertain  to 
ritualistic  questions,  but  they  are  almost  nothing 
to  them  in  life.  There  is  very  little  preaching, 
less  pastoral  visitation,  and  much  useless  bending 
of  the  back  over  musty  books  full  of  "  dry  bones" 
of  rabbinical  lore. 

The  one  great  Jewish  intellectual  and  ethical 
centre  of  the  Ghetto  is  the  Educational  Alliance 
building,  with  its  various  scattered  branches  ;  it  is 
everything  which  a  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation is  to  a  Gentile  community,  only  more, 
inasmuch  as  it  ministers  to  all,  from  childhood  to 
old  age.  Israel's  intellectual  hunger  is  as  great 
as  its  proverbial  greed  for  wealth,  and  this  gigan- 
tic building,  covering  a  block  and  containing 
forty-three  classrooms,  is  entirely  inadequate  ^to 


164  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

meet  the  demand.  The  main  entrance  is  always 
in  a  state  of  siege,  and  two  policemen  are 
stationed  there  to  maintain  order  and  keep  the 
crowding  people  in  line.  I  visited  it  on  a  hot 
Sunday  afternoon  in  July,  and  I  found  the  large, 
well-stocked  reading-room  uncomfortably  filled 
by  young  men.  The  roof-garden  is  a  breathing- 
place  for  thousands,  and  is  always  crowded  by 
children,  who  are  supervised  in  their  play  and 
who  enjoy  it  eagerly. 

The  annual  report  reads  like  a  fairy  tale. 
Many  of  the  lectures  and  entertainments  have  to 
be  given  a  number  of  times  to  give  all  an  op- 
portunity to  hear  and  to  see,  and  some  of  the 
most  difficult  subjects  discussed  find  the  most  nu- 
merous and  enthusiastic  hearers.  Baths,  sewing 
and  cooking  schools,  are  maintained,  and  to  give 
even  a  list  of  all  the  agencies  employed  to  lift  this 
population  would  exhaust  my  space.  There  has 
been  marked  improvement  among  its  constitu- 
ency mentally  and  ethically,  and  the  redemption 
of  New  York  from  Tammany  was  in  no  small 
measure  due  to  the  faithful  work  done  by  this 
and  other  similar  centres,  not  the  least  among 
them  being  the  University  Settlement. 

There  are  several  Christian  churches  in  this 
district,  but  what  their  influence  upon  the  new- 
comer is  I  could  not  determine.  In  the  main 
it  may  be  said  that  the  churches  do  not  con- 
cern themselves  greatly  regarding  this  problem 


IN  The  GHETTOS  of  NEW  YORK     165 

around  them,  although  there  are  a  few  notable 
exceptions. 

The  following  letter  does  not  give  one  a  hope- 
ful view  of  Bthe  situation.  The  gentleman  to 
whom  this  letter  was  written,  Mr.  User  Marcus, 
was  actively  engaged  in  the  kind  of  politics  in 
which  the  churches  ought  to  have  an  interest. 
He  organized  a  club,  and  through  one  of  its 
members  secured  a  room  in  the  Woods  Memorial 
Church  on  Avenue  A.  After  the  first  meeting 
Mr.  Marcus  received  the  following  letter : 

NEW  YORK,  Nov.  i,  1901. 
Mr.  User  Marcus,  157  Second  Ave.,  City. 

DEAR  SIR — Word  has  just  come  to  me  that  your 
club  will  mainly  consist  of  Jews,  also  that  you  are  acting 
independently  of  the  club  already  formed.  Now  you  must 
know  that  the  young  men  who  have  the  club  are  the  men 
of  our  church,  and  therefore  it  would  not  be  right  to  oust 
them  for  strangers,  and  especially  Jews.  The  men  are 
quite  worked  up  about  it,  and  came  to  see  me  about  it  the 
other  night,  and  this  is  my  decision :  that  you  get  another 
place  of  meeting  other  than  ours.  I  have  issued  orders 
that  you  cannot  meet  again.  And  another  thing  :  I  told 
you  strictly  that  you  must  be  out  by  10  p.  M.,  which  you 
were  not,  as  you  kept  the  room  open  until  eleven  o'clock. 
All  these  things  have  determined  me  on  my  course,  and  I 
hope  that  you  will  not  take  it  in  a  wrong  spirit,  as  I  am 
acting  simply  for  the  best  interests  of  my  church,  and  feel 
that  this  is  the  best  way  for  all  concerned. 

It  seems  to  me  that,  being  Jews,  you  would  scorn  to  ac- 
cept any  favours  from  Christians.  I  should  certainly  be 


166  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

pretty   far  gone  before   I   should   ask  or  even  accept  a 
favour  at  the  hand  of  a  Jew,  knowing  as  I  do  the  feeling 
which  exists  between  them  and  the  people  of  our  religion. 
Yours  respectfully, 


The  Jew  suspects  every  convert  and  suspects 
and  hates  the  missionary.  His  own  religious 
faith  may  have  little  hold  upon  him,  but  he  is 
hostile  to  the  attempt  to  proselyte  him  and  his 
brethren.  He  knows  Christianity  from  its  worst 
side,  and  he  does  not  always  see  it  in  these  mis- 
sions from  its  best  side,  for  all  religious  work 
which  bends  its  effort  towards  making  a  big  an- 
nual report  must  be  superficial  if  not  dishonest, 
and  the  temptation  to  make  converts  is  very 
great,  even  if  the  methods  employed  are  above 
suspicion. 

The  work  of  the  Jewish  Mission  in  the  Ghetto 
ought  to  be  the  interpretation  of  the  spirit  of 
Christianity,  so  that  it  might  remove  suspicion 
and  prejudice,  and  not  increase  them.  Making 
converts  in  that  mechanical  way  used  in  the  re- 
vival service  of  the  past  is  as  obnoxious  to  the 
sensible  Christian  as  it  is  to  the  sensitive  Jew  ; 
while  the  coddling  of  the  convert  and  his  exhibi- 
tion as  an  example  do  more  harm  than  good.  A 
true  interpretation  of  Jesus  by  Christian  people  in 
tb«  churches  and  out  of  them,  a  touch  of  kind- 
ness here  and  there  without  a  thought  of  definite 


IN  The  GHETTOS  of  NEW  YORK     167 

results,  the  treating  of  the  Jew  as  a  man  and  not 
as  a  special  species,  would  do  more  to  reach  the 
Jewish  soul  than  any  organized  missionary  effort 
with  which  I  am  acquainted. 

The  two  great  social  factors  of  the  Ghetto  are 
the  Yiddish  newspapers  and  the  theatre,  each  of 
them  in  some  degree  entering  into  the  life  of 
every  dweller  in  the  Ghetto,  as  indeed  each  of 
them  is  a  mixture  of  good  and  ill ;  a  battle-field  of 
past  ideals  and  modern  aspirations.  The  paper 
most  in  evidence  on  the  street  is  the  Jewish 
Vorwaerts,  the  Social  Democratic  organ ;  if  all 
its  readers  were  adherents  of  this  political  faith, 
its  strength  would  be  enormous.  A  careful  exami- 
nation of  this  subject  shows  that  there  are  about 
three  thousand  Social  Democrats  in  the  Ghetto, 
and  that  three  hundred  of  that  number  are  of  the 
extreme  type.  The  politics  of  the  Ghetto  used  to 
be  very  uniform  ;  they  were  Democratic ;  years 
ago  a  Jewish  Republican  was  a  curiosity,  to-day 
he  is  a  very  important  minority.  Tammany  had 
a  very  strong  hold  upon  this  district,  and  even 
to-day  the  Tammany  district  leader  is  its  political 
saint. 

To  "  fix  and  be  fixed  "  used  to  be  considered 
no  crime,  and  is  still  winked  at  with  both  eyes, 
although  every  time  that  Tammany  is  defeated, 
the  Ghetto  has  a  few  less  crooked  windings.  To 
evade  the  law  is  a  vice  brought  from  the  lawless- 
ness of  Russia,  and  the  political  tutelage  of  the 


168  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

East  side  of  New  York  has  not  improved  the 
situation.  The  Hearst  influence  is  felt  here  in  a 
remarkable  degree,  and  the  New  York  Evening 
Journal  is  a  great  power  for  both  good  and  ill. 

The  Jewish  immigrant  receives  his  first  train- 
ing for  citizenship  in  one  of  the  lodges  or  societies 
of  which  there  are  legions.  Here  he  becomes 
conscious  of  himself ;  and  above  all,  he  can  talk, 
and  unlock  the  flood-gates  of  unexpressed 
emotion. 

I  attended  a  "meetunk"  as  it  is  called,  of  a 
"Sick  and  Benefit  Society,"  and  I  think  it  is 
typical  of  all  of  them.  The  "  meetunk  "  was  held 
on  Lewis  Street,  in  a  hall  on  the  top  story  of  a 
rather  old  and  rickety  building.  Underneath  the 
lodge  room  is  a  dance  hall,  beneath  that  a  syna- 
gogue, and  a  saloon  occupies  the  basement.  The 
occasion  was  a  public  installation  of  officers,  and 
the  ladies  were  invited.  To  one  who  has  seen 
these  people  in  their  old  environment,  the  change 
seems  miraculous.  The  men  wore  the  very  best 
and  cleanest  clothing,  and  the  women  were 
obtrusively  stylish. 

All  the  red  tape  of  the  American  lodge  was 
observed  in  this  society,  in  which  most  of  the 
members  knew  nothing  of  parliamentary  law  and 
had  never  taken  part  in  debate.  Unfortunately 
for  the  decorum  of  the  ladies,  there  was  a  wedding 
ball  in  the  room  below,  and  the  Polish  mazurka 
kept  their  feet  in  motion  and  did  not  seal  their 


IN  The  GHETTOS  of  NEW  YORK     169 

lips.  The  President  used  the  gavel  freely,  and, 
in  spite  of  stamping  feet  and  wild-measured  music, 
the  installation  services  were  carried  out.  The 
personnel  of  this  society  is  of  some  interest ;  its 
eighty  members  are  drawn  almost  entirely  from 
one  district  in  the  old  country  ;  with  the  exception 
of  three  or  four  men,  they  are  all  engaged  in 
manual  labour.  The  retiring  President  is  a  grad- 
uate of  a  gymnasium,  speaks  four  languages 
poorly  and  English  very  well,  is  a  Republican,  is 
thoroughly  Americanized,  and,  although  not 
active  in  politics,  is  an  influence  for  good  in  their 
affairs.  He  neither  smokes  nor  drinks,  and 
manages  to  save  money  from  his  meagre  wages. 
The  newly  installed  President  is  a  wood-turner 
by  trade,  earns  eighteen  dollars  a  week,  is  also  a 
Republican,  not  active  in  politics,  but  a  conscien- 
tious citizen.  The  newly  elected  Vice-President 
is  a  cloak-presser,  a  strong  Social  Democrat,  and 
would  die  for  his  political  faith.  He  belongs  to 
the  Social  Labour  wing,  and  he  hates  the  Social 
Democratic  wing  with  a  desperate  hatred  ;  he  is 
a  good  speaker,  honest  though  fanatical,  and 
one  who  might  be  made  to  see  the  weakness 
of  his  political  creed.  The  Secretary  is  a  Polish 
Jew,  a  dealer  in  plumbers'  supplies,  a  Democrat 
not  of  the  Tammany  order,  a  stereotyped  Anti- 
Imperialist  and  Free-trader,  speaks  English 
fluently  although  only  ten  years  in  this  country, 
and  is  on  the  road  to  Harlem — that  is,  to  wealth. 


1 70  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

The  Treasurer  is  a  Russian  Jew,  an  "  aprator," 
earns  eight  dollars  a  week,  speaks  English  very 
well,  has  been  six  years  in  the  country  but  is  not 
yet  a  citizen ;  he  will  be  a  Social  Democrat  first, 
and  a  Republican  when  he  has  a  bank  account. 
Of  the  eighty  men  present,  fifteen  were  Republi- 
cans, twenty  were  Democrats,  two  were  Social- 
ists, and  the  rest  were  not  yet  citizens. 

Most  of  them  spoke  English  fairly  well,  and 
some  could  understand  a  few  words  although 
only  four  months  in  this  country.  Of  the  married 
women  the  fewest  could  speak  English,  but  the 
young  girls  knew  it  well  enough — slang,  vaude- 
ville songs,  and  all. 

After  the  installation  services  there  was  much 
useless  discussion  (under  the  "good  of  the 
order")  upon  minor  points,  so  typical  of  such 
meetings  outside  the  Ghetto.  Characteristic  of 
the  "  meetunk "  was  the  fact  that  the  leaders 
were  all  members  of  other  lodges.  Of  the  women 
who  spoke  for  "  the  good  of  the  order,"  a 
"  Daughter  of  Rebekah,"  the  wife  of  the  Presi- 
dent, made  a  capital  speech.  The  "meetunk" 
adjourned  for  a  banquet  served  in  the  basement, 
where  a  Hungarian  stew  and  beer  cheered  and 
filled  but  did  not  inebriate  or  cause  indigestion. 
National  songs  were  rendered  by  the  young 
people  as  the  spirit  moved  them,  and  after  the 
banquet  the  whole  "  meetunk  "  invited  itself  to 
the  wedding  ball  up-stairs,  where  in  the  polka 


IN  The  GHETTOS  of  NEW  YORK     171 

and  mazurka  they  drove  time  away  wildly,  and 
prepared  themselves  badly  for  the  next  day's 
hard  labour. 

In  the  Ghetto,  Friday,  the  day  before  the 
Sabbath,  is  a  day  of  agitation,  of  scrubbing,  cook- 
ing, baking,  and  merchandizing ;  Saturday  is  the 
day  of  meditation,  when  the  faces  are  solemn  and 
the  step  is  slow,  and  although  many  must  work, 
there  is  a  perceptible  stillness  everywhere.  With 
shuffling  step  and  pious  mien  the  rabbis  and 
members  go  to  the  synagogue,  and  with  much 
wailing  and  lamentation  praise  and  bless  Jehovah. 

The  second  generation  of  the  immigrant  Jew 
has  lost  its  adherence  to  the  solemn  observance 
of  the  day  of  rest ;  eats  and  drinks  whenever  and 
wherever  opportunity  offers,  and  smokes  cigars 
on  the  Sabbath  (a  most  heinous  sin).  Americani- 
zation means  to  the  Jew  in  most  cases  dejudaiz- 
ing  himself  without  becoming  a  Christian.  There 
is  a  painful  eagerness  on  the  part  of  some  of  the 
younger  generation  especially  to  cast  aside  every- 
thing which  marks  it  as  Jewish,  and  I  have  heard 
some  of  the  severest  criticisms  of  the  Jews  from 
the  lips  of  such  people.  The  American  Jew  be- 
comes over-conscious  of  the  faults  of  his  race,  and 
not  seldom  hates  the  word  Jew  and  feels  himself 
insulted  if  it  is  applied  to  him.  "  I  hate  them 
all,"  I  heard  a  number  of  the  younger  Jews  say, 
and  there  was  no  vice  in  the  calendar  of  Hades 
which  they  did  not  ascribe  to  their  own  race. 


172  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

If,  as  some  people  claim,  the  Jews  are  discrim- 
inated against  in  New  York  by  the  Gentile  busi- 
ness firms,  I  have  proof  that  there  are  a  number 
of  Jewish  firms  that  do  not  employ  any  Jews  and 
very  many  that  prefer  Gentile  help.  The  Jews 
who  come  from  various  European  countries  hate 
one  another  on  general  principles,  and  a  Hun- 
garian or  a  German  Jew  looks  down  in  the 
greatest  derision  on  the  Pole  and  the  Russian. 
These  latter  two  nationalities  are  mentally  and 
physically  stronger,  their  needs  are  smaller,  their 
wits  are  sharper,  and  as  getting  ahead  always 
starts  calumny,  the  Russian  Jew  gets  a  good 
share  of  it.  His  is  not  a  prepossessing  nature  ; 
his  form  and  face  are  often  repulsive  and  his 
habits  are  none  the  less  so,  but  he  has  an  abun- 
dance of  ambition  and  a  superabundance  of  sharp- 
ness, which,  when  they  are  led  into  right  chan- 
nels, become  an  ennobling  talent.  East  Broad- 
,way,  the  wholesale  district  of  the  Ghetto,  suffers 
from  overmuch  such  talent,  and  its  capacity  for 
shrewd  trading  and  quick  thinking  cannot  be 
excelled  anywhere  in  New  York  outside  of  Wall 
Street. 

The  Polish  and  Russian  Jews  are  under  strong 
suspicion  of  making  money  out  of  fires  and 
bankruptcies,  and  the  suspicion  must  be  well 
founded,  for  the  insurance  companies  discrimi- 
nate against  them  and  many  of  them  refuse  to 
take  the  risks.  Great  crimes  are  seldom  laid  to 


IN  The  GHETTOS  of  NEW  YORK     173 

the  charge  of  the  Russian  Jew,  although  too 
often  he  lends  himself  to  rather  shady  business 
transactions,  and  the  percentage  of  certain  crimes 
is  rapidly  increasing.  Taking  him  as  a  whole, 
however,  he  is  honest,  industrious,  and  frugal, 
and  has,  above  all,  the  making  of  a  man  in  him. 
It  is  true  that  he  works  for  small  wages,  but  he 
•soon  wants  more  ;  he  lives  on  little  money,  but 
he  soon  spends  more.  He  does  not  have  as 
many  faults  as  his  enemies  assert,  and  he  has  as 
many  virtues  as  one  might  reasonably  expect. 
He  is  to  be  feared,  not  for  his  weakness,  but  for 
his  strength  ;  not  for  his  faults,  but  for  his  virtues ; 
he  is  here  to  stay,  he  does  not  care  to  return  to 
Russia,  and  he  cannot  if  he  wishes  to.  The  Rus- 
sian Government  sees  to  that.  If  he  wishes  to 
return  home  for  a  visit,  he  changes  his  name, 
puts  a  big  cross  around  the  necks  of  his  children, 
and  says  he  is  a  Protestant ;  but  he  has  a  hard 
time  to  convince  the  officials,  and  often  is  forced 
to  return  without  seeing  his  native  village.  The 
Ghetto  is  not  an  ideal  dwelling-place  ;  its  near- 
ness to  the  Bowery,  the  crowded  condition  of  its 
tenement-houses,  and  its  inherited  weaknesses 
and  sins  are  against  it ;  yet  I  have  never  seen  a 
drunken  man  on  any  of  its  streets  and  I  have 
witnessed  only  one  quarrel,  but  that  was  worth  a 
great  many  of  its  kind  in  other  places. 

The  Ghetto  is  a  peaceful  community  if  not  a 
united  one.     For  instance,  the  young  man  with 


174  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

whom  I  drifted  into  New  York  remained  closely 
attached  to  the  Jews  from  his  own  district  in 
Russia,  and  consequently  retained  all  the  preju- 
dices against  the  Jews  who  came  from  more  or 
less  favoured  portions  of  the  Czar's  domain.  He 
was  from  Lithuania,  and  regarded  himself  and 
his  kind  as  intellectually  keener  and  more  learned 
in  the  law  than  they  ;  facts  which  were  acknowl- 
edged by  his  neighbours,  but  who  added  to  them 
less  complimentary  characteristics,  such  as  ex- 
ceptional unreliability  and  trickery  in  trade. 

Not  long  ago,  as  I  walked  slowly  up  Second 
Avenue,  I  was  met  by  a  well-dressed  man,  whose 
face  was  shaven  and  whose  trousers  were  creased 
after  the  manner  of  Americans.  In  good  English 
although  with  a  strong  accent,  he  called  my 
name  and  brought  back  to  my  memory  a  journey 
across  the  sea,  and  a  start  in  life  together  on  this 
side.  "  And  how  are  you  getting  along,  Abromo- 
witz?"  "Getting  along  like  pulling  teeth." 
"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  "I  am  learning  to  be 
a  dentist  with  my  father-in-law,  who  keeps  a  fine 
office."  "  Where  do  you  live  ?  "  "  On  Riving- 
ton  Street,  and  you  must  come  to  see  me."  I 
followed  him  into  a  tenement  house  of  the  better 
class,  and  found  him  rather  well  situated.  The 
home  which  consisted  of  three  rooms  contained 
all  the  hall  marks  of  American  civilization. 
Carpets  of  various  hues  were  upon  the  floor, 
coloured  supplements  of  Sunday  newspapers 


IN  The  GHETTOS  of  NEW  YORK     175 

lined  the  walls,  a  huge  plush  album  contained 
pictures  of  the  friends  left  behind  and  the  new 
ones  made  in  America,  and  "  last  but  not  least " 
on  the  wall  hung  crayon  portraits  of  himself  and 
his  bride  in  their  wedding  attire.  They  also 
possessed  a  phonograph  on  which  they  played 
for  my  special  benefit  the  latest  songs  current  in 
the  variety  theatres.  The  young  husband  told 
me  of  his  increasing  prosperity,  and  when  I  ques- 
tioned him  as  to  why  he  did  not  move  into  a 
better  locality,  he  answered,  that  he  had  contem- 
plated doing  so,  even  having  rented  a  flat  out 
towards  Harlem ;  but  when  he  and  his  wife 
viewed  the  neighbourhood  they  found  that  it  was 
peopled  by  Russian  Jews  not  of  their  own  native 
region,  so  they  preferred  to  remain  on  Rivington 
Street.  To  them  that  street  is  only  a  suburb  of 
Minsk ;  here  the  news  drifts  with  every  incoming 
steamer,  and  although  it  is  almost  always  sad 
news,  they  thus  keep  in  close  touch  with  the  weal 
and  woe  of  their  kindred  and  acquaintances. 

I  have  made  it  an  especial  task  to  follow  as 
closely  as  possible  the  career  of  a  hundred  Rus- 
sian Jews  with  whom  I  have  come  in  touch  dur- 
ing my  journeys  and  investigations.  Although 
they  did  not  pass  into  my  field  of  observation  to- 
gether, and  represent  various  ages  and  con- 
ditions, the  following  may  be  of  interest :  After 
five  years,  about  forty  per  cent,  had  learned  to 
speak  English  very  well,  and  about  fifteen  per 


176  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

cent,  could  write  it  almost  faultlessly,  while  more 
than  sixty  per  cent,  could  read  English  newspapers. 
Of  this  number  seventy-eight  per  cent,  had  be- 
come wage-earners  and  only  fifteen  per  cent,  of 
these  had  not  materially  improved  their  lot  in 
life.  Eighteen  were  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
three  were  Social  Democrats  of  an  intense  type, 
five  believed  that  way,  but  voted  the  Republican 
ticket,  and  the  rest  were  divided  on  national 
questions  about  evenly  between  the  two  domi- 
nant parties.  They  voted  as  they  pleased  in 
local  affairs,  although  they  were  strongly  in- 
fluenced first  by  Tammany  and  later  by  the 
Hearst  movement  which  more  and  more  domi- 
nates the  east  side  of  New  York.  Ninety-one  per 
cent,  has  ceased  to  be  orthodox  in  their  religious 
practices,  although  in  thirty-seven  per  cent,  the 
"  spirit  was  willing  but  the  flesh  was  weak."  All 
the  Social  Democrats  with  the  exception  of  one, 
had  entirely  drifted  from  their  ancient  moorings 
and  were  avowed  atheists.  As  to  their  relation 
to  Christianity  I  asked  one  of  them,  "  Do  you 
know  anything  about  American  Christians  ? " 
and  he  replied,  "  How  shall  I  know  anything 
about  Christians  on  the  East  side  ?  "  Nearly  all 
of  them  were  saving  some  money  and  one  of 
them  had  grown  rich,  at  least  in  the  estimation 
of  his  neighbours,  and  he  was  in  the  real  estate 
business.  Among  all  of  them  there  has  been  an 
intellectual  awakening.  As  one  of  them  said  : 


IN  The  GHETTOS  of  NEW  YORK     177 

"  They  have  room  to  think  though  they  have  but 
little  leisure." 

Modifications  and  almost  marvellous  transfor- 
mations had  taken  place  in  the  features  of  many, 
and  these  were  the  men  who  had  thought  them- 
selves most  into  our  life.  Whether  there  was 
growth  in  ethical  conception  it  is  hard  to  say,  for 
one  cannot  easily  reach  beyond  the  exterior  in 
sociological  observations,  and  depths  do  not  dis- 
close themselves  when  one  watches  people  by 
the  hundred.  Their  business  sense  certainly  has 
not  grown  less  keen,  and  making  money  is  as 
much  an  object  in  life  as  it  always  was.  Per- 
chance even  a  little  more.  The  scale  of  things 
has  changed.  I  find  in  most  of  them  that  they 
are  more  honest  in  little  things,  which  comes  from 
the  fact  that  they  need  not  be  penurious.  The 
real  estate  dealer  is  an  unscrupulous  sharper,  I 
know,  but  in  that  he  merely  shares  the  unenviable 
reputation  of  his  guild. 

I  should  say  that  many  of  the  surface  vices 
born  of  certain  economic  conditions  have  dis- 
appeared, although  I  do  not  see  that  any  great 
virtues  have  taken  their  places  or  that  at  the 
present  time  any  great  ethical  movement  is 
apparent.  The  synagogue  is  sterile  in  that 
direction,  and  the  average  Rabbi  among  this 
class  is  no  ethical  factor. 

The  public  schools,  which  of  course  reach  only 
the  children,  are  much  too  crowded  and  have 


1 78  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

such  a  superabundance  of  raw  material  to  work 
upon  that  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  reach  deep 
enough  into  the  crowded  life  of  the  Ghetto. 
Great  ethical  factors  are  the  Jewish  Alliance 
already  mentioned,  Cooper  Institute,  with  its 
many  lectures  and  Sunday  afternoon  services, 
and  some  of  the  settlements  in  which  many 
honest  attempts  are  made  and  splendid  results 
achieved. 

But  "Salvation  is  still  from  the  Jews,"  still 
from  within,  and  the  best  thing  which  can  be 
done  for  the  Russian  Jews  of  New  York,  and  for 
all  the  Jews  in  America,  is  to  make  them  more 
truly  Jewish,  and  that  is  a  task  at  which  happily 
both  Jew  and  Christian  may  work,  and  for  that 
task  we  all  need  the  larger  vision  which  comes 
partially,  at  least,  from  knowing  one  another. 


XII 

THE  SLAVS  AT  HOME 

NEARLY  the  whole  eastern  portion  of  Europe 
is  Slavic  territory,  and  although  here  and  there 
broken  into  by  other  races,  it  is  the  Slav's  own 
world  which  he  inhabits.  A  world  which  is  con- 
stantly growing  larger  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
his  advance  in  Asia  has  been  checked. 

One  need  not  travel  longer  than  a  few  hours 
from  the  German  cities  of  Berlin,  Leipsic,  from 
the  Austrian  capital,  Vienna,  or  from  Venice,  in 
Italy,  to  find  himself  far  from  German  speech, 
habits  and  customs. 

On  the  Baltic  and  on  the  Adriatic,  as  well  as 
on  the  Black  Sea,  the  Slav  holds  complete 
possession,  although  politically  he  may  not 
everywhere  be  the  master.  He  undoubtedly 
differs  in  many  ways  from  his  close  neighbours, 
but  just  where  that  difference  lies  is  hard  to  tell, 
because  the  portrayal  of  the  characteristics  of  a 
race  seems  perilous,  the  danger  being  to  ascribe 
to  a  nation,  as  traits,  the  agreeable  or  disagreeable 
impressions  gathered  from  individuals  during 
visits  of  shorter  or  longer  duration.  Inherited 
prejudices  play  no  little  part  in  such  judgments  ; 
and,  again,  we  too  often  hear  nations  given  praise 
or  blame  which  is  based  upon  an  indigestible 

179 


i8o  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

dish,  a  disagreeable  day,  a  good  glass  of  wine,  or 
joyous  camaraderie. 

To  characterize  the  Slav  is  doubly  difficult, 
because  he  has  managed  in  the  last  twenty  years 
to  start  many  conflicts,  and  therefore  has  made 
enemies,  who  are  apt  to  ascribe  to  him  un- 
complimentary characteristics.  The  Englishman 
has  disagreeable  notions  of  the  Slav  in  the  East, 
the  German  has  his  Polish  problem,  the  Austrian 
has  the  belligerent  Czech,  the  Italian  on  the 
Adriatic  has  the  assertive  Illyrian ;  the  Turk 
doesn't  think  very  highly  of  his  Slav  neighbours, 
the  Bulgarians  and  Montenegrins.  It  is  not  only 
hard  not  to  be  prejudiced  against  the  Slav,  but  it 
is  hard  to  be  informed  about  him ;  first,  because 
he  has  written  very  little  about  himself,  with  a 
few  notable  exceptions,  and,  secondly,  because 
there  are  so  many  Slavic  tribes  which  have 
remained  isolated  one  from  the  other,  have 
developed  upon  different  lines,  or  have  been 
influenced  by  the  stronger  race  to  which  they 
happened  to  be  neighbours,  so  that  many  char- 
acteristics which  we  ascribe  to  them  are  often 
the  borrowed  virtues,  or  more  frequently  the  sins, 
of  their  neighbours. 

The  Wends,  Poles,  and  Bohemians  show  in 
speech  and  life  influences  of  their  German  neigh- 
bours ;  the  Slovak  in  Hungary  has  a  strong 
Magyar  taint ;  the  Croatian,  Servian,  Bulgarian, 
and  the  Montenegrin  come  dangerously  near  the 


*  e 

>--  0> 

1 1 

O  «M 


II? 


THE  SLAVS  AT  HOME  181 

Turk;  the  Dalmatian  on  the  Adriatic,  in  spite 
of  his  resistance  against  it,  shows  influences  of 
Venice,  not  only  in  the  magnificent  architecture 
of  his  churches,  but  also  in  language  and  charac- 
ter ;  while  the  Slovene  of  the  Alps  has  received 
much  good  from  his  brave  Tyrolese  neighbours 
whom  of  course  he  in  turn  has  influenced. 
•  The  only  Slavic  people  who  present  an  un- 
broken surface  for  observation  are  the  Russians, 
who,  undivided  by  high  mountains  or  other 
natural  difficulties,  have  blended  their  differences 
to  some  extent,  and  have  become  a  vast  nation, 
with  a  common  language,  a  common  faith,  and 
certain  characteristics  which  have  become  the 
common  possession  of  all  the  people.  But  to 
generalize  even  about  the  Russian  is  impossible, 
inasmuch  as  there  are  at  least  two  well-defined 
types,  divided  geographically,  and  differing  not 
only  in  outward  appearance,  but  in  nearly  every- 
thing about  which  one  is  sorely  tempted  to  write 
in  general  terms. 

The  Great  Russian,  who  occupies  the  largest 
part  of  his  native  land,  is  undoubtedly  of  mixed 
blood,  the  Finnish  extraction  manifesting  itself  in 
the  flattened  features  and  the  protruding  cheek- 
bones ;  while  his  enemies  say  that  you  need  not 
scratch  him  long  before  you  strike  the  Tartar. 
He  is  rather  roughly  made,  his  features  are  any- 
thing but  delicate,  the  nose  is  heavy  and  inclined 
to  be  pugnacious  (this  may  be  taken  as  the  gen- 


182  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

eral  tendency  of  the  Slavic  nose),  his  eyes  are 
brown  or  pale  blue,  and  friendly,  and  the  face  is 
suffused  by  a  health-betraying  glow.  The  colour 
of  the  hair  is  seldom  or  never  black,  and  shades 
all  the  way  from  a  light  brown  to  a  definite  red, 
and  from  that  to  a  rather  indefinite  blond. 

The  other  pronounced  type  is  that  of  the  Little 
Russian,  who  occupies  nearly  all  the  southern 
portion  of  the  country,  and  differs  from  his  more 
numerous  brothers  in  physique  and  habits  as  the 
southern  people  usually  differ  from  the  northern. 
The  Little  Russians  are,  generally  speaking, 
smaller,  the  face  more  delicately  chiselled,  com- 
plexion and  hair  darker,  their  women  vivacious 
and  handsome,  and  they  claim  to  be  of  purer 
Slavic  blood,  although  you  do  not  have  to  scratch 
them  at  all  to  find  the  Tartar. 

The  Slav  has  moved  from  the  Dnieper  as  far 
east  as  the  Ural,  and  has  moved  beyond  it  as  fast 
as  steam  could  carry  him.  He  has  entered  the 
heart  of  Europe,  is  at  the  doors  of  the  German 
capital,  and  has  almost  supplanted  the  native 
Austrian  in  Vienna.  In  the  Alps,  on  its  southern 
slopes,  he  has  built  his  huts  within  nature's 
citadels,  and  faces  Italy  on  the  Adriatic.  In  the 
Balkans  he  has  asserted  himself,  has  shaken  off 
the  yoke  of  Islam,  and  is  destined  to  be  the 
master  of  the  Bosphorus ;  while  the  Karpathians, 
which,  like  a  crescent,  wind  about  Hungary,  are 
the  stronghold  of  the  ever-increasing  Slav, 


THE  SLAVS  AT  HOME  183 

In  a  larger  measure  the  other  Slavic  tribes  on 
non-Russian  soil  differ  one  from  another  ;  thus, 
the  Dalmatian  is  the  giant  among  them,  and  he 
of  the  Boche  de  Cattaro  is  a  veritable  Slavic 
Apollo,  measuring,  on  an  average,  six  feet  three 
inches.  He  is  dark-skinned,  and  graceful  in  his 
movements.  But  size  and  beauty  decrease  as 
one  travels  northward  through  Bulgaria  and 
Servia  into  Hungary,  Bohemia,  and  Poland. 

One  despairs  of  designating  as  a  race,  or  even 
as  a  nation,  a  people  which  differs  more  widely 
than  one  can  tell  within  the  limits  of  a  chapter ; 
people  who  have  neither  a  history  nor  a  literature 
in  common,  and  whose  language,  although 
philologically  one,  varies  so  that  if  they  under- 
took to  build  a  tower  or  an  empire,  the  confusion 
of  the  Biblical  Babel  would  find  a  parallel  in 
modern  history. 

And  yet  these  differing  tribes  or  nationalities 
have  some  things  in  common,  especially  in  the 
social  life  and  organism.  There  is,  first  of  all,  a 
temper  which  is  among  all  of  them  impassive, 
seldom  aroused  even  under  the  influence  of  drink. 
This  explains  the  ease  with  which  they  have  been 
conquered  by  other  races,  seldom  coming  to  in- 
dependence, only  the  nature  of  their  country  hav- 
ing compelled  the  Russians  to  make  a  Russia, 
which  they  were  a  long  time  in  making.  This 
also  explains  the  despotism  of  the  Czar,  the 
patience  with  which  it  has  been  borne,  and  the 


184  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

long  stretches  of  years  without  revolution  or  ref- 
ormation. But  now  his  wrath  is  kindled  and  the 
oppression  of  years  has  aroused  his  fury.  The 
Slav  is  not  a  builder  of  empires,  because  he  is  not 
a  citizen  but  a  subject — a  severe  master  or  a  sub- 
missive servant.  As  a  rule,  he  bears  oppression 
patiently,  shrinks  from  overcoming  obstacles,  is 
seldom  inquisitive  enough  to  climb  over  the 
mountains  which  lock  in  his  native  village  to  see 
what  is  beyond  them,  never  cares  much  for  the 
sea  and  its  perils,  the  Russian's  desire  for  har- 
bours being  a  political  necessity  rather  than  a 
natural  want.  Even  a  democratic  institution, 
such  as  the  "  mir "  in  Russia,  which  borders 
strongly  upon  communism,  and  is  by  some 
scholars  urged  as  an  indication  of  the  Slavs'  in- 
dependent spirit,  is  to  me  a  proof  of  their  lack  of 
that  spirit.  Any  one  who  has  been  at  a  meeting 
of  the  "  mir "  knows  that  the  one  or  the  few 
never  dissent ;  things  go  just  as  they  come,  and 
the  strong  rascal  (and  there  are  such  among  the 
Slavs)  rules  "  mir "  or  "  bratstvo  "  at  his  own 
pleasure,  and  no  one  says,  "  Why  do  ye  so?  " 

The  family  bears  among  the  Slavs  strong 
archaic  forms,  especially  among  those  of  the 
south,  where  the  bratstvo  (brotherhood)  is  still 
the  unit.  A  bratstvo  occupies,  according  to  its 
size,  one  or  more  villages  ;  and  church,  cemetery, 
meadows,  and  mills  are  held  in  common.  Be- 
sides these  peaceful  possessions,  they  have  every 


THE  SLAVS  AT  HOME  185 

quarrel  in  common,  and  every  member  of  the 
bratstvo  is  most  ready  to  avenge  the  honour  of 
his  people.  These  are  characteristics  visible  in 
their  colonies  in  America,  In  Montenegro,  the 
Herzegovina,  and  also  in  some  parts  of  Dalmatia, 
blood  vengeance  is  still  practiced,  and  it  not 
seldom  happens  that,  to  avenge  one  life,  war  is 
waged  until  there  is  not  one  male  member  left 
who  can  carry  a  gun ;  then  the  quarrels  are  con- 
tinued by  the  next  generation.  The  bratstvo  is 
ruled  by  an  elder,  elected  by  all  its  male  mem- 
bers. He  is  their  justice  of  the  peace,  the  pre- 
siding officer  at  all  meetings,  and  in  case  of  war 
is  the  captain  of  his  company.  The  members  of 
a  bratstvo  consider  themselves  blood  relatives, 
intermarriages  were  formerly  prohibited,  and 
even  now  are  not  common.  The  aristocratic 
spirit  shows  itself  in  the  fact  that  mechanics,  es- 
pecially blacksmiths,  are  expelled  from  it  and 
share  none  of  its  privileges  or  responsibilities. 
The  elder  of  the  bratstvo,  or  household,  is  an  em- 
bryo Czar,  and  the  honours  shown  to  him  by  all 
its  members  express  the  reverence  which  the 
Slav  always  shows  to  those  in  authority.  He 
can  withhold  permission  for  smoking,  dancing, 
or  playing ;  no  one  touches  the  food  until  he  has 
tasted  it,  no  one  is  seated  in  his  presence  until  he 
has  permitted  it ;  he  is  the  one  member  of  the 
household  who  has  an  individual  spoon,  which 
may  not  be  used  in  the  cooking  ;  and  yet  from 


186  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

experience  I  know  that  he  may  sometimes  play 
the  Czar  too  much,  and  that  there  is  temper 
enough  left  in  the  household,  if  not  in  the  men  at 
least  in  the  women,  to  make  it  decidedly  uncom- 
fortable for  him,  and  to  remind  him  of  his 
plebeian  origin  and  his  democratic  relatives. 

The  further  north  one  travels,  the  more  the 
bratstvo  decreases,  although  the  large  com- 
munal households  do  not  entirely  disappear 
even  in  Russia.  Everywhere  the  bond  of  rela- 
tionship is  very  strong,  and  to  become  the  god- 
father of  a  child  unites  one  to  its  family  for  weal 
or  woe.  There  is  one  relationship  common 
among  the  southern  Slavs  which  exceeds  that  of 
the  closest  tie  of  blood  ;  it  is  that  Qlprobratimtsvo, 
or  prosestrimtstvo,  a  brotherhood  or  sisterhood, 
or  close  friendship,  between  two  men  or  two 
women,  or  even  between  a  man  and  a  woman, 
which  among  orthodox  Slavs  is  still  solemnized 
with  the  sacraments  of  the  church.  Of  course 
this  solemn  service  is  followed  by  a  feast,  and 
the  following  toast  shows  the  spirit  of  that  oc- 
casion : 

With  whom  drink  I  to-day  ? 

With  thee,  honoured  brother,  with  thee  drink  I  to-day 

In  God's  name. 

The  Virgin  bless  thine  earthly  store  ; 

Increase  thine  honour  more  and  more ; 

Be  near  thy  friend  with  helpful  deed, 

But  never  thou  his  help  to  need. 


THE  SLAVS  AT  HOME  187 

God  grant  thee  much  of  earthly  bliss, 
And  may  the  saints  thy  forehead  kiss. 
May  wine  for  friends  abundant  flow, 
And  children  in  thy  household  grow. 
May  God  unite  our  house  and  land, 
As  we  thus  grasp  each  other's  hand. 

Admirable  as  is  the  family  tie  which  binds  the 
Slav,  abhorrent  even  to  the  strongest  "  Slavo- 
phile "  is  the  position  occupied  by  woman  in  the 
family  and  in  the  social  life  among  Southern  and 
Eastern  Slavs.  To  escape  the  charge  of  preju- 
dice, I  shall  quote  a  few  proverbs  current  among 
the  Southern  Slavs — a  few  out  of  many  hun- 
dreds : 

The  man  is  the  head,  the  woman  is  grass. 

One  man  is  worth  more  than  ten  women. 

A  man  of  straw  is  worth  more  than  a  woman  of  gold. 

Let  the  dog  bark,  but  let  the  woman  keep  silent. 

He  who  does  not  beat  his  wife  is  no  man. 

"  What  shall  I  get  when  I  marry  ?  "  asks  a  boy  of  his 
father.  "For  your  wife  a  stick,  for  your  children  a 
switch." 

Twice  in  his  life  is  a  man  happy :  once  when  he  mar- 
ries, and  once  when  he  buries  his  wife. 

And  the  woman  sings  in  the  Russian  folk-song, 
which  I  have  freely  translated, 

Love  me  true,  and  love  me  quick, 
Pull  my  hair,  and  use  the  stick. 

Although  there  are  love-songs  of  another  kind, 


188  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

in  which  woman  is  praised  for  her  charms,  she 
becomes  virtually  a  slave  as  soon  as  she  marries, 
and  the  little  poetry  of  the  folk-song  does  not 
accompany  her  even  to  the  marriage  altar.  She 
is  valued  only  for  the  work  she  can  do  in  a  house- 
hold and  for  the  children  she  can  bear ;  and 
should  this  latter  blessing  be  denied  her,  her  lot 
becomes  doubly  pitiable,  and  she  sometimes 
seeks  release  by  suicide,  after  which  the  proverb 
says  of  her,  "  It  is  better  thus  ;  a  barren  woman 
is  of  no  use  in  the  world."  In  Montenegro  the 
proverb  says,  "  My  wife  is  my  mule,"  and  she  is 
treated  accordingly  ;  and  to  see  her  bent  double 
beneath  her  load  of  wood,  flour,  or  oil,  while  her 
liege  lord  walks  erect  by  her  side,  with  his  arsenal 
of  weapons  in  his  girdle,  is  to  see  the  proverb  in 
action.  Yet  here,  where  woman's  lot  is  the 
worst,  woman's  virtue  is  regarded  most  highly, 
the  penalty  for  adultery  being  swift  death,  and 
the  social  vice  almost  unknown. 

It  would,  of  course,  be  unjust  to  charge  every 
Slav  with  beating  his  wife,  but,  unfortunately,  it  is 
the  rule  rather  than  the  exception  among  the  peas- 
ants ;  and  the  lot  of  the  Slavic  woman  grows 
better  only  as  the  Slav  is  further  from  Eastern 
barbarism  and  nearer  to  Western  civilization. 
Yet  she  is  wooed  with  the  same  ardour  as  is  her 
more  favoured  sister,  and  perhaps  she  is  loved 
just  as  much  by  her  husband,  only  he  has  a 
strange  way  of  showing  his  affection.  That  the 


THE  SLAVS  AT  HOME  189 

Slavic  woman  possesses  the  qualities  to  make  of 
herself  a  "  new  woman "  can  be  plainly  seen 
among  the  women  of  the  higher  class  in  Russia, 
where  there  is  a  second  paradise  for  women  ; 
America,  by  common  consent,  being  the  first. 

Among  all  the  Slavs  music  is  much  loved,  and 
the  fields  in  the  busiest  harvest-time  are  melo- 
dious from  song.  The  Czech's  love  for  music 
has  become  proverbial,  although  the  proverb  is 
not  complimentary  to  him  and  was  invented  by 
his  enemies.  It  is  said  that  when  a  Czech  boy 
is  born,  the  nurse  holds  up  to  him  a  penny  and 
a  violin  ;  if  he  seizes  the  penny,  he  will  be  a 
thief ;  if  the  violin,  he  will  be  a  musician.  It  is 
true  that  every  Czech  village  has  its  band,  which 
often  wanders  all  over  Europe,  making  melody 
as  it  goes ;  and,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  the 
"  Leetle  Sherman  pand  "  upon  which  the  Amer- 
ican bestows  his  pennies  and  his  jokes  does  not 
come  from  Germany  at  all,  but  from  some  village 
in  Bohemia.  Mechanical  musical  instruments 
have  played  havoc  with  the  native  genius  of 
these  people.  Slavic  music  has  a  melancholy 
strain,  and  this  is  especially  true  of  the  music  of 
the  Southern  Slav,  whose  simple  musical  instru- 
ments, the  "  swirala  "  and  the  "  gusla,"  are  not 
capable  of  giving  one  joyous  note,  even  at  a 
wedding.  They  may  be  truly  called  Jeremiac 
instruments.  With  love  of  music  goes  the  love 
of  dancing,  and  the  Czechs  and  Poles  invent 


190  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

new  dances  for  every  occasion,  while  the  South 
ern  Slavs  cling  to  their  monotonous  national 
"  kolo,"  which  is  a  reckless  sort  of  kicking  exer- 
cise, accompanied  by  the  aforesaid  instruments, 
while  some  old  minstrel  sings  of  the  heroic  deeds 
of  the  past. 

Cities  among  the  Slavs  are  rare  ;  the  people 
usually  live  in  villages,  nearly  all  of  which  have 
common  characteristics.  It  seemed  strange  to 
find  that  I  could  walk  through  a  Russian  village 
near  Moscow,  and  yet  could  easily  think  myself 
among  the  Slovaks,  thousands  of  miles  away,  or 
even  among  the  more  picturesque  Dalmatians  on 
the  Adriatic.  The  villages  all  look  alike.  There 
is  always  one  street,  and  just  one,  in  the  village ; 
one  wood  or  mud  house  leans  against  the  other, 
one  thatched  roof  overlaps  the  other,  and  there  is 
never  more  than  one  fire  at  a  time  in  a  village 
like  this  ;  for  generally  the  whole  business  burns 
down  at  once.  The  barns,  called  "  stodoly,"  are 
generally  built  together,  a  short  distance  from 
the  village.  The  church  occupies  the  centre  of 
the  village,  and  near  by  is  a  mud-puddle,  where 
geese,  pigs,  and  babies  take  their  daily  swim. 
Put  into  some  convenient  place  a  pump,  tie  some 
ox-teams  to  it,  place  in  the  foreground  clouds  of 
dust  or  a  sea  of  mud,  and  you  have  a  fair  picture 
of  Slavic  villages. 

Of  course  they  differ  in  degrees  of  ugliness,  the 
Russian  village  taking  the  first  prize  for  unadul- 


THE  SLAVS  AT  HOME  191 

terated  homeliness,  as  there  is  no  sign  of  beauty, 
not  even  a  primitive  attempt  at  decoration,  any- 
where. Among  the  Slovaks  in  Hungary,  and 
among  the  neighbouring  tribes,  there  is  an 
attempt  at  art  Crudely  painted  houses  are  the 
rule,  and  somewhere  about  them  there  will  be  an 
indication  of  decoration,  but  it  requires  a  vivid 
imagination  to  find  out  just  what  it  is,  the  art 
spirit  being  strong  but  undeveloped. 

Little  flower-gardens  near  or  around  the  houses 
are  seldom  or  never  seen  in  Russia,  but  are  com- 
mon among  the  Czechs  and  other  Western  Slavs. 
The  interior  of  the  houses  differs  among  them  as 
to  size  and  arrangement.  The  Russian  house 
has  two  rooms,  separated  by  the  main  entrance. 
One  is  called  the  cold  room  and  the  other  the 
hot  room.  The  hot,  or  winter  room  has  as  its 
chief  possession  a  brick  bake,  cook,  and  heating 
stove  or  oven,  the  top  of  which  is  the  bedstead 
in  the  winter-time ;  and  a  very  comfortable  place 
it  is.  The  cleanliness  in  these  Slavic  homes  is 
also  of  varied  degrees,  and  is  often  conspicuous 
by  its  absence.  Dirt,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  is  often 
in  evidence,  and  certain  insects  which  would 
annoy  us  dreadfully  exist  in  these  rooms  in  un- 
countable numbers,  but  are  treated  with  silent 
contempt,  which  does  not  tend  to  their  diminu- 
tion. 

The  Slavic  tribes  differ  in  their  costumes,  but 
nearly  all  of  them  have  retained  the  sheepskin 


192  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

coat,  which  they  wear  summer  and  winter.  The 
wool  is  turned  inside.  The  skin  is  often  coloured 
red,  and  the  legs  of  the  sheep  hang  over  the 
shoulders.  Both  men  and  women  wear  this 
coat;  but,  of  course,  the  woman's  coat  is  dec- 
orated in  fantastic  ways  and  costs  a  great  deal  of 
money.  The  rest  of  the  man's  attire  consists  of 
linen  trousers  and  shirt,  home-made  from  the 
tough  fibre  to  the  coarse  stitching.  A  cap  is  also 
worn,  and  in  Russia  is  generally  of  fur.  There 
are  numberless  varieties  of  this  dress,  but  in  each 
village  all  dress  alike,  differing  only  in  the  fine- 
ness of  the  material  used. 

"  How  do  the  women  dress  ? "  Can  a  man 
ever  describe  a  woman's  dress  ?  And  can  any 
mortal  describe  the  Slavic  woman's  dress,  when 
in  nearly  every  village  they  have  a  peculiar 
style  ?  And,  oh  !  what  styles  !  Colour  in  every- 
thing; red,  yellow,  silver,  and  gold,  laces  and 
embroideries  and  what-not,  costing  sometimes 
nearly  two  hundred  dollars.  But,  of  course  they 
do  not  get  a  new  dress  every  year,  just  one  in  a 
lifetime,  or,  if  they  are  really  good,  maybe  two. 
The  costliness  of  the  woman's  dress  is  the  cause 
of  much  suffering,  for,  although  the  styles  do  not 
change,  vanity  is  a  shrewd  mistress,  and  will  put 
a  half-inch  broader  lace  upon  a  woman's  cap, 
thus  setting  all  the  feminine  hearts  on  fire  from 
envy  ;  and  the  next  market  day  the  broader  lace 
will  be  shading  every  woman's  eyes,  although 


THE  SLAVS  AT  HOME  193 

perhaps  a  feather-bed  had  to  be  pawned,  or  next 
winter's  pig  had  to  wander  to  the  butcher's  ere 
its  time  had  come. 

Among  the  Slovaks,  with  whom  woman's  garb 
is  most  costly  and  most  picturesque,  there  is  a 
great  desire  to  lay  it  aside  and  adopt  the  more 
fashionable  dress  of  society;  for  the  peasant's 
costume  compels  one  to  be  addressed  as  an 
inferior — ti  (thou) — and  putting  on  the  modern 
garb  puts  one,  at  least  in  the  eyes  of  strangers, 
upon  a  higher  social  level,  and  onyi  (you)  is  the 
pronoun  used. 

The  Slavic  peasant  lives  simply  enough  at 
home.  His  food  consists  largely  of  a  vegetable 
diet,  and  meat  on  the  table  is  the  sign  of  a  holi- 
day, a  wedding,  or  of  a  fortunate  excursion  into  a 
neighbour's  chicken-coop  or  pig-sty.  Among  one 
large  tribe  they  have  only  one  meal  a  day,  usually 
at  noon.  It  is  cooked  in  the  morning  and  kept 
warm  under  the  ashes  or  under  the  feather-bed 
until  it  is  time  to  eat  it. 

The  main  staples  of  diet  among  all  are, 
potatoes,  black,  sour  rye  bread,  cabbage  for 
soups  and  cakes  ;  kascha,  or  gruel ;  and,  finally 
barshtsh,  a  concoction  made  of  beets,  and  not  half 
so  bad  as  it  looks. 

The  Czech  has  a  reputation  as  an  epicure,  and 
the  Bohemian  girl  is  generally  an  excellent  cook, 
in  addition  to  her  other  good  qualities.  To 
mention  Slavic  cooking  and  leave  out  garlic 


194  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

would  be  "  Hamlet  with  the  Prince  left  out,"  and 
I  feel  sure  that  travellers  in  Slavic  countries  will 
readily  testify  to  the  excessive  presence  of  this  fra- 
grant bulb,  although  they  may  never  have  seen  it 
The  literature  of  the  Slav  is  abundant,  and 
some  of  it  is  no  doubt  great.  That  of  Bohemia 
is  the  oldest,  that  of  Poland  the  most  finished, 
and  that  of  Russia  in  modern  times  the  most 
abundant.  The  folklorist  has  here  much  virgin 
territory  in  which  to  gather  material,  but  it  remains 
to  be  seen  whether  it  is  worth  gathering  and  pre- 
serving. Both  folk-lore  and  literature  are  strongly 
realistic,  being  a  reflection  of  the  Slavic  character, 
and  not  a  protest  or  reaction,  as  with  the  Germanic 
people.  The  Slav  speaks  and  sings  about  plain 
things  plainly,  but  naturally,  and  not  offensively 
when  one  understands  the  source  of  his  song. 
It  never  makes  sin  attractive,  and  consequently 
is  wholesome.  The  lyric  love-song  is  made  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people,  travels  from  lip  to  lip, 
and  is  simple  and  beautiful  in  the  original ;  thus 
the  Czech  sings : 

If  I  see  thee,  kneeling,  praying 

In  the  church,  my  dear, 
I  am  far  from  God  and  heaven, 

But  to  thee  am  near ; 
If  I'd  love  my  God  in  heaven 

As  I  now  love  thee, 
I  would  saint  or  very  angel 

In  His  presence  be. 


THE  SLAVS  AT  HOME  195 

The  Slovak  sings  thus  of  love : 

Whence  getteth  everybody 

Love  in  his  very  breast  ? 
It  grows  not  on  the  bushes, 

It's  hatched  not  in  the  nest ; 
And  were  this  love  abiding 

On  rocks  as  heaven  high, 
We'd  send  our  hearts  to  find  it, 

Yes,  even  if  we  die. 

More  poetically,  the  Croatian  sings : 

Oh,  what  is  love  ?  a  zephyr  mild, 

As  gentle  as  a  new-born  child, 

To  kiss  each  blossoming  flower. 

Oh,  what  is  love  ?  a  wild  storm-cloud, 

A  roaring,  maddening  tempest  loud, 

A  weeping,  drenching  shower. 

Oh,  what  is  love  ?  a  scattered  gloom, 

A  thousand  glorious  flowers  in  bloom, 

A  glowing,  burning  fireball, 

A  giant  held  by  chains  in  thrall, 

A  joyful,  chiming  wedding  bell, 

A  dreadful  chasm,  a  burning  hell. 

Oh,  may  thy  love,  thou  dearest  child, 

Like  spring  winds  be,  so  sweet,  so  mild  ! 

Oh,  reach  to  me  thine  angel  hand, 

And  lead  me  to  that  heavenly  land  ! 

One  of  the  marked  characteristics  of  the  Slav 
is  his  deep  religious  feeling.  If  you  wander 
through  Moscow,  you  will  see  at  every  step  evi- 
dences of  this  in  the  many  churches,  chapels,  and 


196  OK^The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

wayside  icons  before  which  the  faithful  cross  them- 
selves or  lie  prostrate  in  the  dust.  Everywhere 
the  Russian  manifests  his  deep  allegiance  to  the 
Church,  and  every  action  of  his  life  is  in  some 
way  influenced  by  its  teaching.  He  obeys  im- 
plicitly all  its  rules,  especially  in  regard  to  the 
many  fast  or  feast  days.  He  venerates  the 
churches  and  cloisters,  has  implicit  faith  in  the 
intercession  of  the  saints,  and  every  year  out  of 
every  village  go  forth  pious  pilgrims  over  barren 
wastes  and  through  dense  forests  to  some  sacred 
tomb  in  some  faraway  cloister.  The  height  of 
ambition  of  every  pious  mujik  is  to  make  a  pil- 
grimage to  Jerusalem,  and  a  whole  lifetime  is 
spent  in  self-denying  struggle  to  accumulate 
money  enough  for  that  purpose. 

Common  to  all  the  Slavs  is  the  tendency  to 
superstition  ;  remnants  of  the  old  heathenism  re- 
main everywhere,  startling  one  by  stories  and 
usages  which  during  centuries  of  winters'  nights 
have  grown  to  grotesque  proportions  in  the  dark, 
uncomfortable  izbas  of  the  peasants,  and  have 
curiously  blended  with  their  Christian  faith,  so 
that  it  is  difficult  for  them  to  distinguish  one  from 
the  otherc  The  Slav  is  usually  charitable  to  the 
poor,  although  not  always  generous  to  the  weak, 
and  he  cannot  be  praised  for  excessive  hospitality. 
He  is  too  often  clannish,  is  apt  to  be  jealous,  and 
consequently  not  always  faithful  or  honest.  The 
Polish  and  Russian  peasants  are  proverbially 


THE  SLAVS  AT  HOME  197 

thievish  ;  as  one  of  their  current  sayings  has  it, 
u  the  only  things  which  they  will  not  carry  away 
are  hot  iron  and  millstones,"  a  characteristic 
which  they  lose  completely  under  better  economic 
conditions. 

The  Slav  is  humanity  still  in  the  rough,  and  to 
that  fact  are  due  his  faults,  his  virtues,  his  weak- 
ness, and  also  his  strength. 


XIII 

THE  SLAVIC  INVASION 

THE  Slovak  and  the  Pole,  or  the  "  Hunkies  "  as 
they  are  often  contemptuously  called,  are  among 
the  most  industrious  and  patient  people  who  come 
to  our  shores.  I  know  this  because  time  after 
time  I  have  followed  them  from  their  native  vil- 
lages, across  the  sea  and  into  the  coal  mines  of 
Pennsylvania,  or  the  steel  mills,  coke  ovens  and 
lime  stone  quarries  along  the  lakes,  to  which  they 
were  called  because  their  virtues  as  labourers  were 
known.  Even  on  board  ship  they  are  the  most 
patient  passengers,  for  hardships  are  not  new  to 
them,  and  the  bill  of  fare,  meagre  though  it  is, 
contains  not  a  few  luxuries  to  which  their  palates 
are  strangers  ;  if  it  were  not  for  the  seasickness, 
they  would  consider  their  ocean  trip  as  much  of 
a  pleasure  as  do  those  of  us  who  cross  the  sea  for 
a  wedding  trip  or  a  vacation.  I  have  crossed 
the  ocean  with  them  ten  times  at  least,  and  have 
never  heard  a  word  of  complaint,  although  their 
more  refined  travelling  companions  say  much 
about  their  untidiness,  rudeness,  and  other  marks 
of  semi-civilization.  I  have  never  seen  one  of 
them  read  a  newspaper  ;  only  one  man  do  I  re- 
member who  read  a  book,  and  that  was  a  prayer- 

198 


THE  SLAVIC  INVASION  199 

book  of  the  Greek  Church.  They  leave  their 
picturesque  garb  at  home,  and  lie  on  the  deck  in 
all  sorts  of  weather  in  all  kinds  of  dress  and  un- 
dress, the  women  being  barefooted  even  in  win- 
ter. In  conversation  with  the  men  I  can  never 
go  beyond  the  facts  that  they  are  going  to  work, 
earn  money,  pay  off  a  mortgage  on  a  piece  of 
land  at  home,  or  save  enough  money  to  send  for 
Katchka  or  Anka  to  be  their  wedded  wife.  If 
the  Slovak  feels  any  great  emotions  when  he 
reaches  New  York,  he  never  expresses  them ;  he 
is  usually  dumb  from  wonder  and  half  frightened, 
as  he  faces  this  new  and  busy  world  in  which  he 
will  be  but  an  atom  or  just  so  much  horse-power. 
In  spite  of  the  contract  labour  law,  he  is  billed  to 
an  agent  in  New  York  or  taken  to  Pennsylvania, 
where  his  new  life  begins  and  too  often  ends  in 
a  coal-mine. 

The  home  which  he  will  make  for  himself  is 
one  of  many,  and  all  alike  are  painted  green  or 
red, — shells  of  buildings  into  which  crowd  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  people  who  are  taken  care  of 
by  one  woman  whose  husband  may  be  the  fore- 
man of  a  gang  and  the  chief  beneficiary  of  its 
labour. 

In  the  town  of  Verbocz,  in  Hungary,  I  recently 
met  a  man  who  had  returned  from  America  with 
$2,000  in  his  pocket,  and  whose  career  here  is 
typical  of  a  large  number.  He  came  to  America 
fifteen  years  ago  and  worked  in  a  mine  in  Penn- 


200  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

sylvania  near  Pittsburg.  He  had  stayed  long 
enough  to  learn  English,  to  be  able  to  receive 
and  give  orders  and  have  them  carried  out,  so 
he  became  a  foreman.  His  wife  and  children 
then  came,  and  moved  into  one  of  the  houses 
previously  described,  bringing  with  them  twenty 
men,  boarders.  Through  much  industry  and 
frugality  they  saved  these  $2,000  and  now  in  their 
old  age  they  had  returned  to  spend  that  money 
at  their  pleasure.  The  wife  has  permanently  put 
off  the  peasant  garb  and  has  retained  in  her 
vocabulary  such  bits  of  English  as  "  come  on," 
"  go  on  "  and  "  how  much,"  which  she  displays 
on  every  occasion.  The  children  are  still  in 
America,  one  of  the  sons  being  in  the  saloon 
business,  and  on  the  road  to  greater  wealth  than 
that  which  his  father  accumulated. 

Their  competitors  in  the  field  of  labour  accuse 
them  of  filthiness,  yet,  after  having  walked 
through  hundreds  of  these  shanties,  I  can  say 
that  the  report  of  untidiness  among  them  is  ex- 
aggerated ;  for  the  majority  of  homes  are  cleaner 
than  their  crowded  condition  would  warrant, 
while  there  are  not  a  few  in  which  the  floors  are 
scrubbed  daily,  and  fairly  shine  from  cleanliness. 
Just  as  uncomplainingly  as  into  the  life  on  board 
ship,  the  Slovak  fits  into  the  new  work,  whatever 
it  may  be,  and  no  animal  ever  took  its  burden 
more  patiently  than  he  does  his,  as  he  faces  un- 
flinchingly the  hot  blasts  of  a  furnace  or  the  dark 


THE  SLAVIC  INVASION  201 

depths  of  mines.  He  can  be  worked  only  in 
gangs  directed  by  one  of  his  number  who  has 
gathered  a  few  crumbs  of  English,  and  who 
seasons  them  freely  by  those  words  which  are 
usually  printed  in  dashes.  Such  a  thing  as  re- 
bellion he  does  not  know,  as  his  whole  past 
history  testifies ;  in  our  strikes  he  is  a  very 
convenient  scapegoat  and  not  seldom  a  sheep, 
led  to  deeds  whose  consequences  he  has  not 
measured.  In  nearly  every  case  of  violence 
which  I  could  trace  and  in  which  he  took  an  active 
part,  he  was  inflamed  by  drink  which  interested 
persons  had  given  him. 

He  is  considered  by  the  tradesmen  of  his  town 
to  be  their  most  honest  customer,  and  one 
merchant  who  has  dealt  with  the  Slovaks  for 
twelve  years,  who  has  carried  them  from  pay-day 
to  pay-day,  and  through  strikes  and  lay-offs,  told 
me  that  he  had  not  lost  one  cent  through  them, 
while  his  losses  from  the  other  miners  were  from 
fifteen  to  thirty-five  per  cent. ;  and,  with  but 
slight  variations,  this  is  the  testimony  of  all  the 
merchants. 

In  no  small  measure  this  is  due  to  their  fear  of 
law,  for  in  Hungary  every  debt  is  collectible,  and 
not  even  the  homestead  is  exempt  from  the  ex- 
ecutioner. There  is  also  no  petty  thieving  in 
communities  where  they  have  lived  for  twenty 
years,  and  they  have  never  been  accused  or  even 
suspected  of  theft.  As  one  common  accusation 


202  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

against  them  is  that  they  spend  very  little  in  this 
country  and  send  most  of  their  earnings  abroad, 
I  examined  this  matter  very  carefully,  interview- 
ing every  merchant  and  every  class  of  merchants, 
the  postmasters,  and  even  the  saloon-keepers,  and 
they  all  agree  that  these  people  are  fairly  good 
customers. 

In  visiting  their  homes  I  found  that  usually 
they  are  not  lavish  as  to  house-furnishings  ;  the 
front  room,  which  in  the  American  household 
would  answer  for  the  parlour,  is  filled  by  the  trunks 
of  the  boarders,  and  in  a  few  cases  has  that  be- 
ginning of  American  civilization,  the  rocking- 
chair.  A  stand  with  a  white  cloth  cover  holding 
a  few  knickknacks  is  a  rarity,  but  exists  in  about 
five  per  cent,  of  the  houses  I  have  visited  ;  car- 
pets I  have  seen  only  twice,  but  the  lace-curtain 
fashion  has  not  a  few  imitators.  Upon  his  bed 
the  Slovak  lavishes  a  great  deal  of  money,  mak- 
ing it  his  costliest  piece  of  furniture,  while  his  im- 
ported feather-beds  keep  out  entirely  the  more 
sanitary  mattress  and  blankets.  He  does  not 
stint  himself  in  his  food,  as  is  commonly  sup- 
posed, for  he  eats  a  good  deal,  although  his 
steak,  being  cut  from  the  shoulder,  is  cheap,  and 
is  always  called  "  Polak  steak."  He  eats 
quantities  of  beans,  cabbage,  and  potatoes,  and 
about  eight  dollars  a  month  covers  the  board  bill 
of  an  adult.  He  drinks  too  much,  but  drinks 
economically,  preferring  a  barrel  of  beer  for  the 


THE  SLAVIC  INVASION  203 

crowd  to  the  more  expensive  glass,  and  he  car- 
ries a  bottle  in  his  hip  pocket  as  invariably  as  the 
cowboy  is  supposed  to  carry  a  pistol.  Instead  of 
whiskey  he  sometimes  takes  alcohol  and  water, 
which  may,  after  all,  be  the  same  rose  by  another 
name.  In  buying  clothing  I  am  told  that  he 
buys  the  best  which  is  fitted  for  his  work  and 
for  his  station,  and  to  see  him  after  working 
hours,  cleanly  washed  and  dressed  in  American 
fashion  from  the  boots  up  to  the  choking  col- 
lar, one  would  not  suspect  him  of  miserliness. 
He  does  save  money,  for  out  of  an  average  earn- 
ing of  forty  dollars  a  month  he  will  send  at  least 
fifteen  dollars  to  Hungary,  and  on  pay-day  the 
money-order  window  in  the  little  post-office  is 
crowded  by  these  industrious  toilers  who  have 
not  forgotten  wife,  children,  old  parents,  and  old 
debts. 

Many  of  them  claim  that  they  would  buy 
houses  in  this  country  if  they  were  assured  of 
steady  work,  and  in  many  places  they  plead  that 
they  cannot  buy  property  because  the  company 
owns  all  the  real  estate  and  prefers  to  rent  all  the 
houses  falsely  called  homes. 

Unfortunately  they  have  imported  into  this 
country  their  racial  prejudices  which  are  keenest 
towards  their  closest  kin,  and  each  mining  camp 
becomes  the  battle-ground  on  which  ancient 
wrongs  are  made  new  issues  by  repeated  quarrels 
and  fights  which  become  bloody  at  times, 


204  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

although  premeditated  murder  is  rather  infre- 
quent. In  a  large  number  of  cases  these  unfor- 
tunate divisions  are  intermingled  by  religious 
differences,  although  the  Slovak  and  the  Pole  do 
not  speak  well  of  one  another  even  if  they  belong 
to  the  same  church.  The  Pole  regards  himself 
as  the  especial  guardian  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  and  while  a  majority  of  the  Slovaks  are 
of  the  same  Church,  Protestantism  has  made  some 
inroads  and  the  Greek  Church  claims  many  loyal 
adherents.  Many  of  the  Catholics  belong  to  the 
Greek  Catholic  Church  which  is  that  portion  of 
the  Greek  Church  in  Austria  which  united  with 
Rome  after  the  division  of  Poland,  and  which 
was  permitted  to  use  its  own  Slavonic  ritual  and 
retain  its  married  clergy.  Only  a  portion  of  the 
Greek  Church  entered  this  union  so  that  nearly 
every  large  Slovak  community  has  a  number  of 
Russian  Greeks,  who  look  upon  the  Roman 
Greeks  with  a  great  deal  of  scorn.  In  Marble- 
head,  on  Lake  Erie,  where  these  Slovaks  are  en- 
gaged in  the  limestone  quarries,  this  division  was 
discovered  after  all  the  Greeks  had  built  one 
church,  that  of  the  Roman  Greeks.  A  few  of  the 
wiser  ones  who  arrived  in  this  country  later  were 
dreadfully  shocked  when  they  saw  this,  and  in 
Peter  Shigalinsky's  saloon  plans  were  made  to 
gain  possession  of  the  church  for  the  only  true 
Greeks,  the  Russian  ;  many  pitched  battles  were 
fought,  a  long  and  fruitless  litigation  followed, 


THE  SLAVIC  INVASION  205 

and  finally  Peter  Shigalinsky  built  next  to  his 
saloon  a  new  church,  whose  orthodoxy  is  empha- 
sized by  one  of  the  horizontal  pieces  of  the  cross 
slanting  at  a  more  acute  angle  than  that  of  the 
Roman  Greek  church,  in  which  of  course  there 
can  be  no  salvation. 

Where  they  have  no  church  of  their  own  they 
are  usually  found  worshipping  with  the  Eng- 
lish or  Germans,  if  they  are  Romanists,  but  in 
many  cases  the  priests  told  me  that  they  are  not 
wanted  and  must  keep  to  one  corner  of  the 
building.  There  are  not  priests  enough  to  shep- 
herd them,  and  those  they  have  are  in  many 
cases  unfitted  for  the  task.  It  is  asserted  that 
the  Lutheran  pastors  are  no  better,  and  count  for 
little  or  nothing  in  making  these  people  Chris- 
tians and  citizens.  They  are  naturally  suspicious 
of  strangers,  but  grateful  for  every  kindness,  and 
once  a  door  is  opened  to  their  hearts  it  is  never 
closed  again.  Unfortunately,  their  speech  shuts 
them  out  from  the  touch  with  American  people 
of  the  same  community,  but  there  are  avenues  of 
approach  in  which  only  one  language  is  spoken — 
the  language  of  love  and  kindness ;  one  noble 
American  woman  whom  I  know  ministers  to 
them  by  nursing  them  and  suggesting  simple 
remedies  when  they  are  ill,  and  has  thus  become 
no  small  factor  in  their  social  and  religious  re- 
demption. 

Of  literature  little  or  nothing  enters  the  mining 


206  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

villages,  although  among  the  Poles  the  hunger 
for  it  grows  and  many  papers  and  magazines  are 
coming  into  existence.  The  Slovak  lives  an 
isolated  lite,  sublimely  ignorant  of  "wars  and 
rumours  of  wars  "  ;  his  breakfast  is  not  spoiled  by 
the  glaring  head-lines  of  the  daily  paper,  nor 
does  the  magazine  or  novel  press  upon  him  the 
problems  of  human  society.  He  knows  his 
camp,  his  mine,  his  shop,  and  though  he  lives  in 
America  and  in  the  most  busy  States  in  the 
Union,  his  world  now  is  not  much  bigger  than  it 
was  when  its  horizon  touched  his  village  pastures. 
As  yet  he  is  not  a  factor  politically,  though  the 
political  "boss"  finds  him  the  best  kind  of  ma- 
terial, for  he  is  bought  and  sold  without  knowing 
it,  and  votes  for  he  knows  not  whom.  At  Brad- 
dock,  Pa.,  it  was  told  me  that  he  is  sold  first  to 
the  Democrats  and  then  to  the  Republicans,  and 
afterwards  is  naive  enough  to  come  back  to  the 
Democrats  and  tell  of  his  bargain,  willing  to  be 
bought  back  into  his  political  family.  Like 
almost  all  foreigners,  he  is  a  Democrat  by  in- 
stinct or  by  association,  one  scarcely  knows 
which,  although  he  is  usually  anything  that  a 
drink  of  liquor  makes  him.  I  asked  one  his 
political  faith,  "  Are  you  a  Democrat  ?  "  "  No,  me 
Catholic — Greek,  not  Russian,"  was  the  reply. 
"  What  are  your  politics  ?  "  I  asked  a  number. 
"  Slovak,"  was  the  invariable  answer.  Not 
twenty  per  cent,  of  those  I  interviewed  knew  the 


THE  SLAVIC  INVASION  207 

name  of  our  President,  not  two  per  cent,  the 
name  of  the  Governor  of  the  State  in  which  they 
were  residing.  The  Slovak  does  not  know  the 
meaning  of  the  word  citizen,  and  the  limited 
franchise  in  Hungary  is  exercised  for  him  by 
those  shrewder  than  himself ;  he  is  just  force  and 
muscle,  with  all  the  roots  of  his  heart  in  the  little 
village  across  the  sea,  and  with  his  brain  wher- 
ever the  stronger  brain  leads  him. 

At  a  recent  election  in  Hungary,  a  district 
where  the  Slovaks  were  in  a  large  majority, 
they  were,  nevertheless,  defeated  by  the  Magyar 
element  which  knew  how  to  manage  them  ;  so 
that  they  may  be  said  to  have  had  just  enough 
political  training  to  fit  them  into  the  political  life 
of  the  average  American  community. 

Although  the  Slovak  is  a  quiet  and  peaceful 
citizen,  on  feast  day  he  does  not  consider  his  re- 
ligious nature  sufficiently  stirred  without  a  fight, 
which  is  usually  a  crude,  bungling  affair,  devoid 
of  the  science  which  accompanies  such  an  episode 
among  the  Irish,  and  also  without  the  deadly  re- 
sults of  an  Italian  fracas. 

On  the  wedding  day  of  Yanko  and  Katshka, 
the  silence  of  the  camp  is  broken  by  the  sound 
of  a  screeching  violin,  followed  by  the  wailing  of 
a  clarinet  and  the  grunting  of  a  bass  viol. 
Above  the  discord  of  noise  made  by  these  in- 
struments is  heard  the  voice  of  the  bridegroom, 
who  leads  the  dances  with  the  song  :  "  I  am  so 


208  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

glad  I  have  you,  I  have  you,  and  I  wouldn't  sell 
you  to  any  one."  If  you  enter  the  house  of  the 
bride,  you  will  find  it  full  of  sweltering  humanity, 
all  of  it  dancing  up  and  down,  down  and  up, 
while  the  fiddlers  play  and  the  bridegroom  sings 
about  "  The  sweetheart  he  is  glad  to  have  and 
wouldn't  sell  to  any  one." 

Usually  the  Slav  dancers  provide  the  notes 
and  the  bank  notes  also  ;  for  at  the  end  of  the 
piece  half  a  dozen  stalwart  men  will  throw  them- 
selves in  front  of  the  musicians,  each  one  of  them 
demanding  in  exchange  for  the  money  tossed 
upon  the  table,  his  favourite  tune  to  which  he 
sings  his  native  song.  The  result  is,  half  a  dozen 
men,  each  singing  or  trying  to  sing,  a  different 
song,  all  of  them  pushing,  crowding,  and  at  last 
fighting,  until  in  the  middle  of  the  room  you  will 
find  an  entanglement  of  human  beings  which 
beats  itself  into  an  unrecognizable  mass.  The 
wedding  lasts  three  days,  the  ceremony  often 
taking  place  after  the  first  day's  festivities.  The 
order  of  proceedings  and  the  length  of  the  feast 
vary,  according  to  imported  traditions  which 
among  the  Slavs  are  different  in  every  district. 

Of  course  the  whole  mining  camp  is  an  inter- 
ested spectator  and  guests  usually  do  not  wait 
for  a  formal  invitation.  The  ceremony  over,  the 
wedding  dinner  is  served,  and  never  in  all  the 
Carpathian  Mountains  was  there  such  feasting  as 
there  is  in  the  Alleghanies.  "  Polak "  steak, 


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THE  SLAVIC  INVASION  209 

cabbage  with  raisins,  beets,  slices  of  bacon,  links 
of  sausages,  sweet  potatoes,  and,  "  last  but  not 
least,"  the  great  American  dish,  conqueror  of  all 
foreign  tastes — pie  ;  huge,  luscious  and  full  of 
unheard-of  delicacies,  Beer  flows  as  freely  as 
milk  and  honey  flowed  in  the  promised  land ; 
again  the  musicians  play  and  if  the  bridegroom 
has  voice  enough  left  he  will  sing  the  song  of 
"The  sweetheart  he  is  so  glad  to  have  and 
wouldn't  sell  to  any  one,  no,  not  to  any  one." 
Barrel  after  barrel  is  emptied  until  the  pyramids 
of  Egypt  have  small  rivals  in  those  built  entirely 
of  beer  barrels  in  the  little  mining  town  in  Penn- 
sylvania. Many  of  the  drinkers  fall  asleep  as 
soundly  as  Rameses  ever  did  before  he  was  em- 
balmed, while  others  are  making  ready  for  the 
end  of  the  feast — the  fight,  for  "no  fight,  no 
feast  "  is  the  proverb.  Somebody  calls  a  Slovak 
a  Polak,  or  vice  versa ;  some  young  man  casts 
glances  at  some  young  maiden  otherwise  en- 
gaged— and  the  fight  is  on.  I  have  never  dis- 
covered just  the  reason  for  the  fight,  and  one 
might  as  well  search  for  the  cause  of  a  cyclone, 
but  the  results  are  nearly  the  same :  furniture, 
heads,  and  glasses  all  in  the  same  condition — 
broken  ;  everybody  on  the  ground  like  twisted 
forest  trees,  while  one  hears  between  long  black 
curses  the  peaceful  snores  of  the  unconscious 
drunk.  The  next  day  and  the  next  the  pro- 
gramme is  repeated,  and  this  is  the  Slovak's 


210  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

only  diversion,  unless  it  be  a  saint's  day,  when 
history  repeats  itself  and  he  once  more  practices 
his  two  vices,  drinking  and  fighting. 

As  a  rule  the  Slav  is  virtuous  although  this 
depends  largely  upon  local  conditions  in  the  vil- 
lage or  district  from  which  he  comes.  One 
could  prove  him  in  certain  regions  the  most 
virtuous  of  men  while  in  others  he  is  just  the  re- 
verse. Almost  without  exception  where  one 
woman  cooks  for  fifteen  or  twenty  men  as  is 
often  the  case  in  mining  camps,  they  respect  her 
as  the  wife  of  one  man,  while  she  respects  her 
own  virtue  and  would  fight  if  necessary  to  re- 
main loyal  to  her  husband.  There  is  much 
coarse,  indelicate  talk  and  much  crudeness,  for 
the  Slav  is  a  realist  in  speech  and  action ;  there- 
fore that  which  would  seem  to  us  immoral,  is 
simply  his  way  of  expressing  himself,  accustomed 
as  he  is  to  call  "  a  spade  a  spade." 

The  Pole  who  emigrates  to  this  country  comes 
from  nearly  the  same  region  as  the  Slovak,  and 
lives  very  much  the  same  life,  although  in  many 
things  he  is  his  superior.  He  has  greater  self- 
assertion,  is  not  so  submissive  to  the  church, 
chafes  more  under  restraint,  has  a  greater  racial 
and  national  consciousness,  and  is  by  virtue  of 
his  historic  development  both  better  and  worse 
than  the  Slovak.  He  becomes  more  identified 
with  American  life  and  will  remain  an  important 
part  of  it  whether  for  good  or  evil,  while  a  large 


THE  SLAVIC  INVASION  211 

portion  of  the  Slovaks  will  return  to  the  villages 
and  the  peaceful  acres  from  which  they  came. 
The  Polish  community  is  consequently  more  of 
an  entity  and  looks  towards  permanence.  The 
centralizing  power  is  usually  the  church  ;  around 
it,  and  stimulated  by  it,  grows  the  Polish  town 
which  not  unfrequently  occupies  the  best  location 
to  be  had,  with  its  agencies  well  organized  and 
controlled. 

Perhaps  the  best  example  of  such  a  Polish 
town  completely  governed  and  controlled  by  the 
church  is  in  New  Britain,  Conn.,  where  the  popu- 
lation is  engaged  in  manufacturing  hardware. 
With  rare  foresight  the  best  situation  in  the  city 
was  bought,  and  facing  the  still  undeveloped 
part  of  this  real  estate  holding,  the  church,  a 
magnificent  white  stone  structure,  was  built ;  a 
church  which  might  well  be  the  pride  of  any 
community.  Their  priest,  who  is  both  Czar  and 
Pope,  is  a  strong,  wise  monarch  who  holds  in  his 
keeping  the  destinies  of  thousands  who  trust  and 
obey  him  implicitly.  The  houses  built  are  rather 
rude  tenements,  evidently  built  to  bring  large 
and  quick  results  ;  but  the  sanitary  condition 
must  be  good  if  it  can  be  judged  by  the  cleanli- 
ness and  wholesomeness  of  the  children.  In- 
deed, this  part  of  the  city  of  New  Britain  is  as 
clean  and  orderly  as  one  might  reasonably  ex- 
pect among  a  population  imported  to  do  the 
roughest  kind  of  labour. 


212  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

One  is  likely  to  be  apprehensive  as  to  the  future 
when  one  realizes  that  nearly  all  the  children  go 
to  a  parochial  school,  in  which  only  a  minimum 
of  the  English  language  is  taught ;  that  the  men 
are  all  organized  into  patriotic  and  religious 
brotherhoods  which  march  armed  through  the 
streets.  One  cannot  yet  determine  how  much 
these  things  will  do  to  prevent  Americanization 
and  assimilation,  two  things  which  are  exceed- 
ingly desirable  and  which  these  and  other  agencies 
seem  to  prevent. 

Besides  Slavs  and  Poles,  lesser  groups  of 
Crainers  from  the  Austrian  Alps,  Croatians 
and  Servians,  have  gathered  in  the  larger  Slav 
centres  and  around  them,  and  while  in  a  great 
measure  they  live  the  same  life  as  do  their  more 
numerous  kindred,  there  are  minor  differences 
which  are  somewhat  accentuated  by  the  abnor- 
mal conditions  under  which  they  all  live. 


XIV 
DRIFTING  WITH  THE  "HUNKIES" 

THE  great  city  had  not  been  kind  to  them. 
For  three  weeks  they  had  been  beaten  back  and 
forth  all  the  length  and  breadth  of  its  hot  and  in- 
hospitable streets  until  their  little  money  and 
their  courage  were  exhausted,  and  they  had 
drifted  back  to  the  Battery,  the  place  nearest 
home  which  they  could  reach  "  without  money 
and  without  price." 

They  had  come  here  for  work  and  had  sought 
it  from  shop  to  shop,  wherever  men  with  a  fair 
share  of  muscle  were  wanted  ;  but  they  always 
found  that  some  stronger  man  had  come  before 
them  so  they  were  left,  like  the  sick  man  at  the 
Pool  of  Bethesda,  unhealed  at  the  edge  of  the 
water. 

They  had  been  my  travelling  companions 
across  the  sea,  and  I  felt  some  responsibility  for 
them,  besides  being  anxious  to  know  what  be- 
comes of  men  in  America  who  have  neither  our 
speech  which  might  be  silver,  nor  the  silent  gold 
which  serves  as  power.  So  I  cast  my  lot  and 
my  small  change  among  them.  We  travelled  as 
far  as  a  five  cent  fare  would  take  us  and  began 
looking  for  work  among  the  large  mansions  and 
fancy  farms  which  line  the  shore  of  Long  Island 

213 


214  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

Sound.  Barking  dogs,  frightened  house  maids 
and  discourteous  lackeys  we  found  everywhere, 
but  neither  work  nor  food  for  the  four  of  us.  We 
did  not  look  like  tramps,  although  our  clothes 
were  shabby  and  the  dust  and  grime  of  the  city 
did  not  tend  to  improve  our  appearance ;  yet  we 
spent  a  whole  day  looking  unsuccessfully  for 
work,  and  when  night  came  upon  us  nothing  re- 
mained but  to  return  to  the  city,  as  bankrupt  in 
our  stock  of  courage  as  in  our  finances. 

That  blessed  and  famous  bread  line,  where  the 
Lord  answers  His  poor  people's  prayer  for  daily 
bread,  kept  us  from  starving,  and  there  was 
enough  free  ice  water  to  be  had  to  wash  down 
the  bread  and  benumb  our  digestive  organs  into 
silence. 

Union  and  Madison  square  park  benches  were 
our  beds  a  few  minutes  at  a  time,  for  the  watch- 
ful policeman  kept  us  moving  as  if  we  were 
drunk  from  laudanum.  We  went  the  length  of 
lower  Broadway,  to  City  Hall  park,  and  finally  to 
the  Battery  where  the  next  morning's  gray  found 
us,  wearier  and  shabbier  than  ever.  Twenty- 
four  such  hours  as  we  lived  were  enough  to  push 
us  down  the  social  scale  to  the  level  of  the  tramp, 
and  we  were  greeted  as  such  by  those  birds  of 
passage,  one  of  whom  proved  to  be  a  "  friend  in 
need."  He  really  pitied  my  speechless  com- 
panions and  after  sharing  with  us  his  begged 
buns,  he  told  us  of  the  New  Jersey  paradise  where 


DRIFTING  WITH  THE  "HUNKIES"  215 

orchards  and  truck  gardens  were  waiting  for  the 
toil  of  our  hands. 

He  promised  to  accompany  us,  and  was 
generous  enough  to  offer  to  pay  our  way  across 
the  river.  He  seemed  to  enjoy  the  task  of  leader- 
ship and  unfolded  his  great  plans  for  us  as  he  led 
us  along  the  railroad  track  by  the  salt  marshes 
of  •  New  Jersey,  where  we  nearly  perished  from 
the  attacks  of  mosquitoes.  The  New  Jersey 
mosquito  is  enough  of  a  factor  to  prevent  the 
distribution  of  the  immigrant.  I  certainly  should 
not  blame  any  one  who  preferred  the  stenches  of 
Rivington  Street  to  the  sting  of  the  mosquitoes  on 
the  New  Jersey  marshes.  Nowhere  was  work 
given  us,  although  we  were  treated  less  rudely, 
and  in  a  few  cases  were  offered  food  in  exchange 
for  a  few  chores ;  our  travelled  friend  diligently 
instructing  us  to  do  as  little  as  possible  in  return 
for  the  kind  of  food  which  we  generally  received. 
The  day's  earning  of  food  included:  smoked 
sturgeon,  which  was  wormy,  and  ham  bones  to 
which  clung  a  minimum  of  meat  and  a  maximum 
of  tough  skin.  On  the  whole,  we  were  soon 
made  to  realize  that  the  New  Jersey  farmer  knew 
how  to  drive  a  good  bargain,  in  connection  with 
what  he  was  pleased  to  consider  his  charities. 

When  night  came,  our  friend  suggested  an 
empty  freight  car  as  our  lodging  place,  and  in 
lieu  of  a  better  one,  we  went  to  sleep  for  the  first 
time  in  this  country,  where  the  bed  cost  us  noth- 


216  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

ing,  and  where  some  one's  else  property  became 
temporarily  our  own.  We  slept,  in  spite  of  the 
soreness  of  our  muscles  and  the  continued  attacks 
of  mosquitoes,  and  when  we  awoke  it  was  still 
dark ;  at  least  in  the  car,  into  which  neither  star- 
light nor  sunshine  could  penetrate, — for  we  were 
locked  in,  our  guide  and  guardian  gone,  and 
with  him  three  watches,  four  coats  and  our 
shoes. 

After  a  long,  long  time,  in  answer  to  our  cries, 
a  railroad  man  opened  the  car  and  found  us  more 
destitute  than  we  had  yet  been,  and  in  need  of  a 
better  friend  (?)  than  the  one  we  had  lost.  I  told 
him  our  story,  and  he  directed  us  to  a  farmer  on 
the  Trenton  road  who  always  needed  labourers, 
and  who  he  was  quite  sure  would  take  us  in,  not- 
withstanding our  denuded  condition. 

Barefoot  and  coatless  we  reached  the  farm 
which  we  recognized  by  the  fact  that  a  sign  was 
tacked  to  the  gate  post,  stating  in  four  languages 
that  "  Labourers  are  wanted  within."  In  the 
rear  of  the  house  we  were  received  by  a  be- 
aproned  gentleman  who  proved  to  be  the  cook 
and  housekeeper  of  this  strange  establishment. 
After  I  had  told  him  the  story  of  our  adventures, 
we  were  invited  to  breakfast  to  which  we  did 
ample  justice,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  was  pre- 
pared by  a  man  who  evidently  knew  little  or 
nothing  about  the  art  of  cooking.  He  told  me 
that  he  too,  had  drifted  from  the  great  city,  an 


DRIFfING  WITH  THE  "  HUNKIES"  217 

immigrant  who  had  found  no  standing  room  in 
the  crowded  shops.  He  told  me  also  that  every 
man  at  work  here  was  a  "  Green-horn,"  as  he  ex- 
pressed it,  and  that  not  one  of  them  had  been 
longer  than  six  months  away  from  the  Old 
Country. 

At  last  the  "  Boss "  came  from  the  field ;  a 
rather  portly  man,  red  faced,  hard  headed  and 
with  small,  beady  eyes.  He  made  a  poor  im- 
pression upon  me,  especially  when  he  began  to 
speak  German,  a  language  which  he  had  ac- 
quired to  be  able  to  deal  with  his  help.  He  of- 
fered us  the  hospitality  of  his  farm  and  $10.00  a 
month,  beside  which  he  was  ready  to  advance  us 
the  necessary  farm  clothing  which  he  kept  in 
stock  for  such  emergencies.  The  clothing  con- 
sisted of  overalls,  jacket,  a  straw  hat  and  very 
coarse  shoes. 

We  were  not  told  what  he  charged  us  for  them, 
but  I  began  to  suspect  the  man  when  that  even- 
ing he  drove  me  to  the  village  to  buy  a  pair  of 
shoes,  none  of  those  in  his  stock  fitting  me. 

When  we  reached  the  store,  he  told  the 
proprietor  in  English  which  I  was  not  supposed 
to  understand,  to  tell  me  that  the  shoes  were  hand 
made  and  cost  $3.50.  They  were  common, 
roughly  made  shoes  which  could  be  bought  in 
any  store  for  $1.25  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  the 
profit  was  to  be  divided  between  these  gentle- 
men. 


2i8  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

At  night  in  the  loft  of  the  barn,  a  dozen  men, 
representing  about  ten  nationalities  met,  and 
after  looking  at  one  another  in  stolid  silence  for 
a  time,  went  to  sleep.  In  the  morning  we  were 
initiated  into  our  task,  which  consisted  of  the 
customary  chores,  and  finally,  the  field  work  in 
the  patches  of  garden  stuff,  where  hoeing  and 
pulling  weeds  were  the  order  of  the  twelve  hours 
labour,  with  the  beady  eyes  of  the  "  Boss  "  ever 
upon  us.  He  grew  more  and  more  impatient 
with  our  unskillful  ways,  and  swore  loudly  in 
English  and  German,  terrifying  my  Slavic  friends 
beyond  my  ability  to  calm  them. 

Each  day  was  the  same  as  the  one  just  past ; 
nard  work  in  the  field,  poor  food  in  the  kitchen, 
a  hay  bed  at  night,  and  the  impatience  of  the 
"  Boss"  manifesting  itself  in  personal  violence 
against  those  of  us  who  were  the  weaker  among 
his  slaves.  Each  day  one  or  the  other  man  dis- 
appeared, some  of  them  leaving  behind  the  little 
bundle  of  clothing  bought  from  the  farmer. 
This  he  immediately  appropriated  and  sold  to  the 
next  comer ;  for  one  or  more  new  men  of  the  same 
type  were  sure  to  drift  in,  to  begin  the  labour 
which  brought  no  wages. 

According  to  the  cook,  the  four  of  us  broke 
the  record,  having  stayed  nearly  a  month.  About 
two  days  before  pay  day  I  came  in  at  evening 
with  a  broken  cultivator.  Whether  running  it 
into  a  tree  stump  had  wrecked  it,  or  whether  it 


DRIFTING  WITH  THE  "HUNKIES"  219 

had  been  ready  to  fall  to  pieces  at  the  slightest 
provocation  I  do  not  know ;  but  the  "  Boss " 
grew  violent  in  his  anger  and  attacked  me  with 
a  pitchfork,  driving  me  out  of  the  very  gate 
through  which  I  had  come  twenty-nine  days  be- 
fore. 

I  went  to  the  village  and  after  finding  a  justice 
of  the  peace,  laid  before  him  my  complaint,  but 
he  discouraged  any  legal  action  on  my  part  be- 
cause I  did  not  have  money  enough  to  back  it. 
When  night  came,  I  returned  to  the  farm  and 
calling  out  my  men,  who  were  only  too  ready  to 
follow,  we  cut  through  a  tall  corn-field,  and  climb- 
ing a  wire  fence  were  again  on  the  Trenton 
road.  We  walked  the  whole  night,  into  Trenton 
and  out  of  it,  and  far  on  our  way  to  Pennsylva- 
nia. The  next  day  we  found  that  our  labour  was 
indeed  wanted,  and  a  few  weeks  in  the  tobacco 
fields  of  a  Pennsylvania  Dutch  farmer  put  money 
into  our  purses  and  flesh  upon  our  muscle.  Upon 
finishing  our  work  we  started  again  upon  our 
journey  and  soon  entered  the  industrial  region  of 
Pennsylvania,  where  steel  furnaces  lined  the  high- 
way and  coke  ovens  illumined  the  landscape, 
making  the  air  heavy  by  their  fumes.  Here  for 
the  first  time  my  companions  saw  labour  in 
America  at  its  highest  tension.  They  were 
frightened  by  the  pots  of  glowing  metal  and 
made  dizzy  by  the  roar  of  the  furnaces. 

Opportunity  for  labour  was  soon  secured,  but 


220  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

my  companions  entered  into  it  so  timidly  that  I 
tried  to  dissuade  them  from  it,  but  could  not, 
as  here  alone  was  steady  employment  offered 
to  men  of  their  class.  I  can  still  see  them  in  the 
great  yard  of  one  of  the  steel  mills,  pale  and 
trembling,  as  if  facing  the  dangers  of  war. 
Half  naked,  savage  looking  creatures  darted 
about  in  the  glare  of  molten  metal,  which  now 
was  white,  "  Like  the  bitten  lip  of  hate,"  then 
grew  red  and  dark  as  it  flowed  into  the  waiting 
moulds.  Close  to  these  hot  moulds  the  men 
were  stationed  to  carry  away  the  bars  still  full  of 
the  heat  of  the  furnace,  and  they  became  part  of 
a  vast  army  of  men  who  came  and  went,  bending 
their  backs  uncomplainingly  to  the  hot  burden. 

I  watched  them  day  after  day  coming  from  their 
work,  wet,  dirty,  and  blistered  by  the  heat ;  drop- 
ping into  their  bunks  at  night,  breathing  in  the 
pestilential  air  of  a  room  crowded  by  fifteen 
sleepers,  and  in  the  morning  crawling  listlessly 
back  to  their  slavish  task. 

No  song  escaped  their  parched  lips,  attuned  to 
their  native  melodies,  and  the  only  cheer  came  on 
pa)7  day,  when  the  silver  dollars  looked  twice  as 
big  as  they  were,  when  a  barrel  of  beer  was  tapped 
at  the  boarding  house  and  this  hard  world  was 
forgotten.  Then  they  tried  to  sing  from  throats 
made  hoarse  by  the  heat, 

"  Chervene  Pivo 
Bile  Kolatshe." 


DRIFTING  WITH  THE  "  HUNKIES"  221 

With  the  song  came  memories  of  their  native 
village,  the  inn  and  the  fiddlers,  the  notes  of  the 
mazurka  and  krakowyan,  and  visions  of  the 
wives  and  children  who  awaited  their  return.  To 
the  town  they  went  that  day  and  sent  $20  each, 
out  of  the  month's  earnings,  to  Katshka  and 
Susanka  and  Marinka,  the  anticipation  of  their 
gladness  making  them  happy  too. 

It  was  the  beginning  of  the  second  month  and 
I  had  drifted  back  to  watch  my  men  at  the  fur- 
naces. They  were  still  carrying  hot  bars  from 
one  place  to  the  other  and  had  withered  into 
almost  unrecognizable  dryness.  I  watched  these 
gigantic  monsters  consuming  them  and  as  I 
watched  a  terrible  thing  happened.  An  appalling 
noise  arose  above  the  roar  to  which  my  ears  had 
grown  accustomed,  and  which  seemed  the  normal 
stillness.  White,  writhing  serpents  shot  out  from 
the  boiling  furnaces  and  were  followed  by  other 
monsters  of  their  kind  which  burned  whatever 
they  touched,  and  before  I  knew  what  had  hap- 
pened the  whole  dark  place  was  full  of  smoke 
and  the  smell  of  burning  flesh.  Eight  men,  my 
three  among  them,  had  been  caught  by  the 
molten  metal,  scorched  in  its  own  fire  and  con- 
sumed by  its  unquenchable  appetite.  What 
happened  ?  Nothing.  A  coroner  came  to  view 
the  remains, — of  which  there  were  practically 
none;  out  of  the  centre  of  the  cooled  metal, 
lumps  of  steel  were  cut  and  buried, — and 


222  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

that  is  all  that  happened;  and  oh,  it  happens 
so  often  ! 

As  I  write  this,  the  daily  paper  lies  before  me ; 
the  Chicago  Tribune  of  May  I3th,  1906.  It  de- 
votes six  columns  to  the  horrors  of  the  steel  mills 
in  South  Chicago.  I  could  fill  the  whole  paper 
with  the  horrors  which  I  have  witnessed  in  mill 
and  mine ;  and  I  could  fill  pages  with  the  names 
of  poor  "  Hunkies "  whom  nobody  knows  and 
about  whom  nobody  cares.  I  cannot  write  it ; 
it  makes  me  bitter  and  resentful ;  so  I  shall  let 
this  newspaper  reporter  speak,  and  he  knows  but 
half  the  story.  I  know  the  other  half,  but  the 
whole  truth  would  hardly  sound  credible. 

CENTRE  OF  MILL  HORRORS 
Here  in  this  hospital  building  and  its  environ- 
ment centres  the  horror  of  horrors  of  the  un- 
tutored mill  workman.  Its  inspiration  is  terror 
to  the  millman  of  the  polyglot  pay  roll,  as  he 
enters  the  Eighty-eighth  Street  gate  to  his  work. 
Hun,  Pole,  Austrian,  Bulgarian,  Bohemian — 
the  "  Hunkies  "  of  Illinois  Steel  colloquialism — 
indifferent  to  pain  of  shattered,  burned,  mangled 
body,  grow  frantic  as  the  stretcher  bearers  near 
this  fortress  hospital.  At  its  gates,  over  and 
over  again,  the  frantic,  hysterical  wife  and  chil- 
dren of  the  victim  have  begged  and  pleaded 
for  admission  against  the  grim  barrier  of  the 
guards, 


DRIFTING  WITH  THE  "HUNKIES"  223 

Why  is  it  ?  You  cannot  get  the  information 
in  South  Chicago  unless  it  be  that  these  men  are 
"  ignorant." 

South  Chicago  distinctly  doesn't  like  the 
"  Hunkie."  He  jams  the  money  order  window 
of  the  post-office  for  two  long  days  after  the 
bi-monthly  pay  day.  He  sleeps  sometimes  thirty 
deep  in  a  single  room  after  the  day  shift,  and  he 
sleeps  again  in  the  still  warm  floor  bed,  thirty 
deep,  after  the  night  shift.  He  has  his  grocer's 
book  on  which  are  entered  his  scant,  half  offal 
meats,  which  day  after  day  are  prepared  for  him 
by  his  hired  cook ;  he  wears  little  and  he  sleeps 
in  that ;  his  bed  is  never  made,  for  the  reason 
that  some  one  always  is  in  it ;  his  money  goes  to 
the  saloon-keeper  or  through  the  foreign  money 
order  window  at  the  post-office. 

He  is  merely  a  "  Hunkie  "  in  Illinois  Steel  or 
in  South  Chicago.  What  if  the  Illinois  Steel 
hospital  is  his  conception  of  Inferno  ? 

He  doesn't  know  much.  He  doesn't  know 
when  he  is  spoken  to,  unless  it  is  by  an  epithet 
which  makes  any  other  man  fight.  Then  he 
moves  doggedly  and  often  with  little  understand- 
ing. Not  understanding,  he  is  the  chosen,  pre- 
destined occupant  of  the  hospital  bed. 

FROM  ACCIDENT  TO  HOSPITAL 
A   "Hunkie"    who   has  been    "hunked"    in 
Illinois  Steel  makes  a  lot  of  strictly  corporation 


224  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

trouble.  The  chief  "  safety  inspector  "  and  his 
staff  are  alert  and  active  at  a  moment's  notice  of 
an  unofficial  accident  report.  The  Illinois  Steel 
photographer  and  his  camera  are  made  ready ; 
the  stretcher  bearers  seize  stretchers  to  the  neces- 
sary number  and  a  hurried  move  is  made  to- 
wards the  scene  of  the  accident,  of  which  the 
Chicago  police  department  may  never  know. 

On  the  scene,  the  camera  is  set  and  the  photo- 
graph— which  so  seldom  is  ever  seen  beyond  the 
gates  of  Illinois  Steel — is  made.  Then  the 
"  Hunkie" — protesting  if  he  be  conscious  enough 
— is  picked  up,  put  upon  the  stretcher,  and  the 
giant  bearers  of  the  body  start  for  the  hospital, 
which  may  be  a  mile  away.  There  are  difficulties 
in  the  march.  Surface  lines  for  ore  and  coal 
trains  net  the  grounds.  Often  a  train's  crew 
finds  difficulty  in  breaking  a  train  to  let  the  body 
through  ;  sometimes  the  crew  balks  and  swears, 
and  the  stretcher  bearers  wait  for  the  shunting  of 
the  cars. 

In  the  hospital  ?  Few  people  know  and  they 
don't  talk.  There  is  a  "  visiting  hour,"  but  the 
surly  guard  at  the  gate  passes  upon  the  appli- 
cant's request  long  before  the  request  may  be 
repeated  at  the  hospital  door.  And  at  the  door 
they  don't  encourage  visitors. 


XV 
THE  BOHEMIAN  IMMIGRANT 

WHATEVER  apprehensions  one  may  have  about 
the  Slav  in  America,  may  be  dispelled  or  accentu- 
ated by  a  study  of  the  Bohemian  immigrants. 
They  began  coming  to  us  when,  during  the 
counter  reformation  under  Ferdinand  II,  Austria 
sent  her  Protestants  to  the  gallows  or  to  America. 

In  Baltimore  the  churches  they  founded  still 
stand,  and  a  sort  of  Forefathers'  Day  is  observed 
by  their  descendants,  who,  though  they  have  lost 
the  speech  of  their  fathers,  still  cling  to  the  his- 
toric date  which  binds  them  to  a  band  of  noble 
pioneers — close  comrades  in  spirit  to  the  Pilgrims 
of  New  England.  Under  Austrian  rule  Bohemia 
became  impoverished  physically,  mentally,  and 
spiritually ;  and  after  the  misgovernment  of 
Church  and  State  had  done  its  worst,  the  flood- 
tide  of  immigration  set  in  anew  towards  this 
country. 

Bohemia  grew  to  be  in  the  last  century  an  in- 
dustrial state,  and  the  immigrants  who  came 
here  were  half-starved  weavers  and  tailors,  who 
naturally  flocked  to  the  large  cities.  In  New 
York  nearly  the  whole  Bohemian  population 
turned  itself  to  the  making  of  cigars,  and  the 

225 


226  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

East  Side,  from  Fiftieth  to  about  Sixty-fifth 
Streets,  is  the  centre.  In  Cleveland,  Ohio,  more 
than  45,000  Bohemians  live  together,  while 
Chicago  boasts  of  a  Bohemian  population  of  over 
100,000,  who  nearly  all  live  in  one  district,  which 
began  on  Twelfth  and  Halstead  Streets,  but  now 
stretches  southward  almost  to  the  stockyards, 
with  a  constant  tendency  to  enlarge  its  boundary 
towards  the  better  portions  of  the  city.  The 
large  tenement-house  is  almost  altogether  ab- 
sent from  this  locality,  the  little  frame  house  of 
the  cigar-box  style  being  the  prevailing  type  of 
dwelling,  and  most  of  the  homes  are  owned  by 
their  tenants.  This  part  of  the  city  is  as  clean  as 
the  people  can  make  it  in  a  place  where  street- 
cleaning  is  a  lost,  or  never  learned,  art.  The  pre- 
vailing dirt  is  clean  dirt,  with  here  and  there  an 
inexcusable  morass  which  offends  both  the  eye 
and  the  nostril.  The  whole  district  is  typical  of 
Chicago  rather  than  of  Bohemia,  and  if  it  were 
not  for  the  business  signs  in  a  strange  and  un- 
phonetic  language,  and  occasionally  a  sentence 
in  the  same  queer  speech,  one  might  imagine 
himself  anywhere  among  any  American  people 
of  the  working  class  ;  nor  is  there  a  trace  of  the 
native  country  in  the  interiors,  where  one  finds 
stuffed  parlour  furniture,  plush  albums,  lace  cur- 
tains, ingrain  carpets,  and  a  piano  or  organ — all 
true  and  sure  indications  of  American  conquest 
over  inherited  foreign  tastes  and  habits. 


THE  BOHEMIAN  IMMIGRANT      227 

Yet  the  conquest  is  only  on  the  surface,  for  it 
takes  more  than  a  carpet-sweeper  to  wipe  out  the 
love  of  that  language  for  which  Bohemia  has  suf- 
fered untold  agony ;  to  which  it  has  clung  in  spite 
of  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  it  by  a  strong 
and  autocratic  government,  and  which  it  is  trying 
to  preserve  in  this  new  home,  in  which  the  Eng- 
lish language  is  more  powerful  to  stop  foreign 
speech  than  is  the  German  in  Austria,  though 
backed  by  force  of  law  and  force  of  arms.  With 
many  Bohemian  daily  newspapers,  with  publish- 
ing houses  printing  new  books  each  day,  with 
preaching  in  the  native  tongue,  and  with  socie- 
ties in  which  Bohemian  history  is  taught,  the 
Czechish  language  will  not  soon  disappear  from 
the  streets  of  Chicago  ;  and  language  to  the 
Bohemian,  as,  indeed,  to  all  the  Slavs,  is  history, 
religion  and  life. 

The  Bohemian  immigrant  comes  to  us  bur- 
dened by  rather  unenviable  characteristics,  which 
his  American  neighbour  soon  discovers,  and  the 
love  between  them  is  not  great.  Coming  from 
a  country  which  has  been  at  war  for  centuries, 
and  in  which  to-day  a  fierce  struggle  between 
different  nationalities  is  disrupting  a  great  em- 
pire, and  clogging  the  wheels  of  popular  govern- 
ment, he  is  apt  to  be  quarrelsome,  suspicious, 
jealous,  clannish  and  yet  factious ;  he  hates 
quickly  and  long,  and  is  unreasoning  in  his  pre) 
vdices ;  yet  that  for  which  a  people  is  hated,  and 


228  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

which  we  call  characteristic  of  race  or  nation, 
soon  disappears  under  new  environment,  and  the 
miracle  which  America  works  upon  the  Bohe- 
mians is  more  remarkable  than  any  other  of  our 
national  achievements.  The  downcast  look  so 
characteristic  of  them  in  Prague  is  nearly  gone, 
the  surliness  and  unfriendliness  disappear,  and 
the  young  Bohemian  of  the  second  or  third  gen- 
eration is  as  frank  and  open  as  his  neighbour 
with  his  Anglo-Saxon  heritage.  I  rather  pride 
myself  upon  my  power  to  detect  racial  and 
national  marks  of  even  closely  related  peoples, 
but  in  Chicago  I  was  severely  tested  and  failed. 
I  have  addressed  many  Bohemian  audiences  to 
which  I  could  pay  this  compliment,  that  they 
looked  and  listened  like  Americans  ;  but  what 
thousands  of  years  have  plowed  into  a  people 
cannot  be  altogether  eradicated,  and  the  Bo- 
hemian, with  all  of  us,  carries  his  burden  of  good 
and  evil  buried  in  his  bones. 

Of  all  our  foreign  population  he  is  the  most 
irreligious,  fully  two-thirds  of  the  100,000  in 
Chicago  having  left  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
and  drifted  into  the  old-fashioned  infidelity  of 
Thomas  Paine  and  Robert  Ingersoll.  Nowhere 
else  have  I  heard  their  doctrines  so  boldly 
preached,  or  seen  their  conclusions  so  readily 
accepted,  and  I  have  it  on  the  authority  of  Mr. 
Geringer,  the  editor  of  the  Svornost,  that  there 
are  in  Chicago  alone  three  hundred  Bohemian 


THE  BOHEMIAN  IMMIGRANT      229 

societies  which  teach  infidelity,  carry  on  an  active 
propaganda  for  their  unbelief,  and  also  maintain 
Sunday-schools  in  which  the  attendance  ranges 
from  thirty  to  three  thousand.  One  of  the  most 
painful  and  pathetic  sights  is  this  attempt  to 
crush  God  out  of  the  child  nature  by  means  of 
an  infidel  catechism,  the  nature  of  whose  teach- 
ing is  shown  by  one  of  the  first  questions  and 
its  answer :  "  What  duty  do  we  owe  to  God  ? 
Inasmuch  as  there  is  no  God,  we  owe  Him  no 
duty."  As  it  is  always  possible  to  exaggerate 
the  strength  of  such  a  movement  I  called  on 
the  editor  referred  to  above,  one  of  the  leaders, 
whose  paper,  in  common  with  two  others,  pur- 
sues this  tendency  and  daily  preaches  its  de- 
structive creed.  Calling  at  the  office  of  the 
Svornost,  I  found  Mr.  Geringer,  a  Bohemian 
of  the  second  generation,  frank  and  open  in  ac- 
knowledging his  leadership  and  the  tendency  of 
his  paper,  although  he  was  less  extreme  than  the 
statements  about  him  by  priests  and  preachers 
had  led  me  to  suppose.  He  certainly  was  much 
more  willing  to  talk  about  his  people  than  were 
the  priests  upon  whom  I  had  called,  and  I  found 
that  his  views  have  not  been  without  change  in 
the  fifteen  years  since  I  last  read  his  paper. 
"  We  are  fighting  Catholicism  rather  than  re- 
ligion," he  said  ;  and  I  added,  "  A  Catholicism 
in  Austria,  with  its  back  towards  the  throne  and 
its  face  towards  the  Austrian  eagle ; "  to  which 


230  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

he  replied,  "You  have  hit  the  nail  on  the 
head." 

In  reality,  this  hatred  extends  unreasonably  to 
all  religion,  and  among  the  less  educated  it 
amounts  to  a  fanaticism  which  does  not  stop 
short  of  persecution  and  personal  abuse. 
Blasphemous  expressions  and  old  musty  argu- 
ments against  the  Bible  are  the  common  topics 
of  conversation  among  many  Bohemian  work- 
ing-men, who  hate  the  sight  of  a  priest,  never 
enter  a  church,  and  are  thoroughly  eaten  through 
by  infidelity.  They  read  infidel  books  about 
which  they  argue  during  the  working  hour,  and 
the  influence  of  Robert  Ingersoll  is  nowhere 
more  felt  than  among  them.  His  "  Mistakes  of 
Moses  "  had  taken  the  place  of  the  usual  news- 
paper story,  and  the  editorials  are  charged  by 
hatred  towards  the  Church  and  towards  Chris- 
tianity as  a  whole.  The  unusual  number  of  sui- 
cides among  the  Bohemians  is  said  to  be  due  to 
the  fact  that  their  secret  societies  encourage 
suicide.  The  books  published  in  Chicago  are  of 
a  rather  low  type,  and  among  them  are  many 
whose  sole  purpose  it  is  to  vilify  the  Church. 

An  unusually  coarse  materialism  pervades  that 
colony.  Professor  Massarik,  of  the  University 
of  Prague,  and  a  recent  visitor  to  this  country, 
makes  this  the  chief  note  of  his  complaint  against 
them.  They  have  singing  and  Turner  societies 
after  the  manner  of  the  Germans,  but  the  ideals 


THE  BOHEMIAN  IMMIGRANT      231 

they  foster  are  really  the  causes  of  their  material- 
ism and  infidelity.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church 
is  fighting  that  spirit  by  maintaining  strong  pa- 
rochial schools,  encouraging  the  organization  of 
iodges  under  its  protection,  and  it  now  publishes 
a  daily  paper.  The  Protestants  cannot  boast  of 
more  than  one  per  cent,  of  members  among 
them,  and  the  three  small  churches  in  Chicago 
are  but  vaguely  felt  and  are  practically  no  fac- 
tors in  the  life  of  this  large  population.  "  We 
don't  know  that  they  are  here,"  said  one  of  the 
infidel  leaders,  and  the  Catholics  take  no  notice 
of  them  at  all.  Some  Protestant  literature  is 
scattered  among  them  but  it  is  not  of  the  highest 
type,  and  is  not  calculated  to  reach  those  who 
need  it  most. 

Chicago  is  as  much  a  Bohemian  centre  for 
America  as  is  Prague  for  the  old  Bohemia,  and 
the  type  of  thought  found  there  is  duplicated  in 
all  the  Bohemian  centres  that  I  visited  ;  every- 
where there  is  a  battle  between  free  thought  and 
Catholicism,  and  many  a  household  is  divided 
between  the  Svornost  and  the  Catholic,  yet  I 
have  good  reason  to  believe  that  this  infidelity 
is  only  a  desire  for  a  more  liberal  type  of  relig- 
ion, only  a  strong  reaction  and  not  a  permanent 
thing,  and  I  found  signs  of  weakening  at  every 
point.  The  little  village  of  New  Prague  in 
southwestern  Minnesota  is  a  good  example.  It 
is  the  centre  of  a  large  Bohemian  agricultural 


232  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

community,  and  has  the  reputation  of  being  a 
"  tough  "  town  and  quite  a  nest  of  infidelity.  I 
found  it  a  clean  and  prosperous  place  of  1,500 
inhabitants,  outwardly  neater  and  better  cared 
for  than  the  ordinary  Western  village.  It  has  a 
clean  and  wholesome-looking  hotel,  a  little 
Protestant  church  and  a  big  Catholic  church,  and 
the  usual  variety  of  stores.  I  was  surprised  to 
find  the  hotel  without  the  customary  bar,  and  to 
my  question  about  it  the  hotel-keeper  replied,  "  I 
have  no  use  for  bars  ;  I  ain't  no  drinking  man 
and  I  don't  want  nobody  else  to  drink." 

The  editor  of  the  New  Prague  Times  had  been 
pointed  out  to  me  as  the  chief  infidel,  yet  I  found 
him  an  interested  reader  of  The  Outlook  and 
kindred  literature,  and  a  rather  fine  type  of  the 
liberal  Christian.  Indeed,  while,  of  course,  the 
Chicago  Svornost  and  its  kind  find  a  great  many 
readers,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  with  the 
infidels  were  classed  all  those  who  refused  to  go 
to  confession,  or  had  helped  to  secure  a  fine 
edifice  for  the  public  school.  From  the  banker, 
the  physician,  the  druggist,  and  the  photogra- 
pher, I  received  additional  proof  that  my  con- 
jecture was  correct,  and  the  only  one  who  had 
little  to  say  in  praise  of  these  people  and  much 
in  blame  was  the  village  priest,  a  true  type 
of  the  Austrian  Catholic,  who  would  rule  with  an 
iron  hand  if  he  could,  and  who  misses  the  strong 
support  of  government.  Typical  of  him  was  the 


THE  BOHEMIAN  IMMIGRANT      233 

answer  to  my  question  as  to  his  touch  with  the 
people  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  Austrian 
priest  at  home.  "  You  know  in  Austria  the 
State  pays  us,  and  we  don't  need  to  come  in 
close  touch  with  the  people,  but  here  it  is  differ- 
ent ;  here  the  people  pay,  and  that  alone  brings 
us  in  closer  touch." 

My  impression  of  New  Prague  is  that  it  is 
neither  "  tough  "  nor  infidel ;  it  is  true  that  it  has 
saloons  and  too  many  of  them,  that  the  Conti- 
nental Sabbath  is  the  type  of  its  rest-day,  but  in 
outward  decency  and  in  the  degree  of  intelli- 
gence among  its  professional  and  business  men, 
it  rivals  any  other  town  of  its  size  with  which  I 
am  acquainted.  It  is  surrounded  by  Irish  and 
American  settlements,  the  first  of  which  it  sur- 
passes in  order  and  decency,  and  is  not  far  from 
the  other  in  enterprise  and  an  unexpressed  desire 
to  establish  the  kingdom  of  God  upon  the  earth. 

Unfortunately  the  saloon  holds  an  abnormally 
large  place  in  the  social  life  of  the  Bohemians, 
and  beer  works  its  havoc  among  them  socially 
and  politically.  The  lodges,  of  which  there 
are  legion,  are  above  or  beneath  saloons,  and 
all  societies  down  to  the  building  and  loan 
associations  are  in  close  touch  with  them.  It  is 
the  pride  of  Bohemian  Chicago  that  two  of  its 
greatest  breweries  are  in  the  hands  of  its  country- 
men, and  brewers  and  saloon-keepers  control 
much  of  the  Bohemian  vote.  I  asked  one  of  the 


234  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

politicians  whether  that  element  was  active  in 
politics,  and  he  replied,  "  Oh,  yes  ;  we  have  five 
aldermen  and  the  city  clerk."  The  fact  is  that 
they  have  given  Chicago  a  poor  class  of  officials 
and  have  placed  their  worst  infidels  in  the  city 
council  and  on  the  school  board.  There  is  not 
a  little  avowed  Anarchy  among  them,  and  a 
great  deal  more  of  Marxian  Socialism,  one  of  the 
daily  papers  advocating  the  latter  political  faith. 
Just  as  there  is  much  dangerous  half-knowledge 
on  religious  subjects,  so  there  is  on  politics,  and 
the  worst  and  yet  the  most  eloquent  arguments 
I  have  heard  on  Socialism,  have  been  by  these 
agitators. 

Though  the  Bohemian  is  very  pugnacious,  he 
is  easily  led,  or  rather  easily  influenced,  and  in 
times  of  political  excitement  I  should  say  that  he 
would  need  a  great  deal  of  watching.  He  is 
much  more  tenacious  of  his  language  and  customs 
than  the  German,  and  I  have  found  children  of 
the  third  generation  who  spoke  English  like 
foreigners.  An  appeal  to  his  history,  to  the 
achievements  of  his  people,  awakens  in  him  a 
great  deal  of  pride,  which  he  easily  implants  into 
the  hearts  of  his  children.  This  does  not  make 
him  a  worse  American,  and  in  the  Bohemian 
heart  George  Washington  soon  has  his  place  by 
the  side  of  John  Huss,  and  ere  long  is  "  first " 
with  these  new  countrymen. 

The  Bohemian  is  intelligent  enough  to  know 


THE  BOHEMIAN  IMMIGRANT      235 

what  he  escaped  in  Austria,  and  thus  values  his 
opportunities  in  America.  Undoubtedly  too  often 
he  confuses  liberty  with  license,  but  in  this  he 
is  not  a  sinner  above  others.  His  greatest  sin  is 
his  materialism,  and  he  stunts  every  part  of  his 
finer  nature  to  own  a  house  and  to  have  a  bank  ac- 
count. Children  are  robbed  of  their  youth  and 
'of  the  opportunity  to  obtain  a  higher  education 
by  this  hunger  after  money,  and  parental  author- 
ity among  the  Bohemians  has  all  the  rigour  of 
the  Austrian  absolutism  which  they  have  trans- 
planted, but  which  they  cannot  maintain  very 
long,  for  young  Bohemia  is  quickly  infected  by 
young  America,  and  a  small-sized  revolution  is 
soon  started  in  every  household.  It  is  then  that 
the  first  generation  thinks  its  bitterest  thoughts 
about  this  country  and  its  baleful  influence  upon 
the  young.  In  fact,  the  second  generation  is 
rather  profligate  in  "  sowing  its  wild  oats,"  which 
are  reaped  in  the  police  courts  in  the  shape  of 
fines  for  drunkenness,  disorderly  conduct,  and 
assault  and  battery. 

The  Bohemian  is  among  the  best  of  our  immi- 
grants, and  yet  may  easily  be  the  worst,  for  when 
I  have  watched  him  in  political  riots  in  Prague 
and  Pilsen,  or  during  strikes  in  our  own  country 
I  have  found  him  easily  inflamed,  bitter  and  re- 
lentless in  his  hate,  and  destructive  in  his  wild 
passion.  He  has  lacked  sane  leaders  in  his  own 
country,  as  he  lacks  well-balanced  leaders  in  this. 


236  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

The  settlement  and  missionary  workers  in 
Chicago  find  him  rather  hard  material  to  deal 
with,  for  he  is  unapproachable,  not  easily  handled, 
and  repels  them  by  his  suspicious  nature  and 
outward  unloveliness,  although  he  is  better  than 
he  seems,  and  not  quite  so  good  as  he  thinks  him- 
self  to  be,  for  humility  is  not  one  of  his  virtues. 
He  develops  best  where  he  has  the  best  example, 
and  upon  the  farms  of  Minnesota  and  Nebraska 
he  is  second  only  to  the  German,  whose  close 
neighbour  he  is  and  with  whom  he  lives  in  peace, 
strange  as  it  may  seem.  The  Bohemian  is  here 
to  stay,  and  scarcely  any  of  those  who  come  will 
ever  stand  again  upon  St.  Charles  bridge,  and 
watch  their  native  Moldava  as  it  winds  itself 
along  the  ancient  battlements  of "  Golden  Prague," 
as  they  love  to  call  their  capital.  America  is 
their  home,  "  for  better  or  for  worse  "  ;  they  love 
it  passionately ;  and  yet  one  who  knows  their 
history,  every  page  of  it  aflame  with  war,  need 
not  wonder  that  they  turn  often  to  their  past  and 
dwell  on  it,  lingering  there  with  fond  regret. 

Some  years  ago,  while  I  was  in  Prague,  Anto- 
nin  Dvorak,  the  composer,  celebrated  his  sixtieth 
birthday,  and  the  National  Opera-house  was  the 
scene  of  a  gala  performance  and  a  great  demon- 
stration in  his  honour.  They  gave  his  national 
dances  in  the  form  of  a  grand  ballet,  and  to  the 
notes  of  those  wild  and  melancholy  strains  of  the 
mazurka,  the  kolo,  and  the  krakovyan,  came  all 


THE  BOHEMIAN  IMMIGRANT      237 

the  Slavic  tribes  in  their  picturesque  garb,  and  all 
were  greeted  by  thunderous  applause  as  they 
planted  their  national  banners.  At  last  came  a 
stranger  from  across  the  sea,  and  in  his  hand  was 
a  flag,  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  while  to  greet  him 
came  Bohemia,  with  Bohemia's  colours  waving 
in  her  hands ;  and  these  two  received  the  greatest 
•applause  of  that  memorable  evening. 

These  two  are  in  the  heart  of  this  stranger. 
Faithful  to  the  old,  he  will  ever  be  loyal  to  the 
new.  How  to  be  loyal,  to  this  flag  in  times  of 
peace  ;  at  the  ballot-box,  on  the  streets  of  Cleve- 
land during  a  strike,  as  a  citizen  and  alderman 
in  Chicago,  is  the  great  lesson  which  he  needs  to 
learn,  and  we  need  to  learn  it  with  him.  He  will 
remain  a  Bohemian  longest  in  the  agricultural 
districts  of  Minnesota  and  Nebraska,  where  he 
holds  tenaciously  to  the  speech  of  his  forefathers ; 
but,  in  spite  of  that,  I  consider  him  a  better 
American  than  his  brother  in  the  city.  He  needs 
to  find  here  a  Christianity  which  will  satisfy  his 
spiritual  nature  and  which  will  become  the  law 
of  his  life,  a  religion  which  binds  him  and  yet  will 
make  him  truly  free  ;  and  that  we  all  need  to  find. 
Above  all,  he  has  to  resist  the  temptation  to  make 
bread  out  of  stone,  to  use  all  his  powers  to  make  a 
living  and  none  of  them  to  make  a  life;  and 
that  is  a  temptation  which  we  must  all  learn  to 
resist,  for  neither  men  nor  nations  can  "live  by 
bread  alone,'1 


XVI 

LITTLE  HUNGARY 

THE  initiated  New  Yorker  knows  half  a  dozen 
restaurants  at  the  edge  of  the  great  Ghetto, 
where  eating  and  drinking  are  a  pleasure  bought 
for  a  modest  price,  and  where  the  fragrance  of 
fine  cigars  mingles  with  that  of  better  wine,  and 
good  fellowship  reigns  supreme.  Some  of  these 
restaurants  are  splendidly  furnished,  and  cater  to 
the  lucrative  trade  of  those  Americans  who  have 
had  a  taste  of  the  social  life  of  Southern  Europe 
and  who  like  to  lapse  into  its  mild  sins  every  once 
in  a  while. 

One  of  these  places,  now  so  fashionable  that 
the  real  Hungarian  rarely  darkens  its  doors, 
where  the  popping  of  champagne  corks  is  heard 
in  the  early  morning  hours,  and  where  the  oyster 
and  lobster  have  almost  entirely  supplanted  the 
native  Gulyas, — is  one  of  the  pioneers  among 
them,  and  in  its  early  days  served  as  a  boarding 
house  for  the  Hungarian  Jews  who,  for  one 
reason  or  another,  had  exiled  themselves  from  the 
gay  boulevards  of  Budapest.  Here  they  tried 
to  find  consolation  in  food  cooked  Magyar 
fashion,  and  in  playing  for  a  few  hours  at 
"  Clabrias,"  their  social  game  of  cards,  which 

238 


LITTLE  HUNGARY  239 

could  also  occasionally  degenerate  into  gambling. 
The  keeper  of  the  place  whose  Semitic  name  of 
Cohen  had  been  changed  into  the  Magyar, 
Koronyi,  recovered  the  fortune  which  he  had 
lost  in  the  Old  Country,  but  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  his  bank  account  grew  larger  every  day, 
he  still  kept  the  boarding  house  as  he  had  always 
kept  it,  with  his  wife  as  the  cook  and  himself  as 
the  waiter. 

In^  stentorian  voice  he  would  call  out : 
"  Harom  Lovos  "  (three  soups)  or  "  Harom  Gul- 
yas  "  (three  Hungarian  stews).  Into  the  kitchen 
and  out  of  it  he  would  rush  with  full  and  empty 
plates,  in  evident  enjoyment  of  his  hard  task. 

The  reputation  of  the  place  travelled  as  far  as 
Broadway,  and  great  was  the  day  when  rich  cloth- 
ing merchants  came  to  eat  his  twenty-five  cent 
dinner  with  evident  relish ;  but  still  greater  the  day 
when  their  Gentile  customers  were  brought  thither 
to  taste  of  the  fleshpots  of  "  Little  Hungary." 

With  increased  speed  he  would  run  to  the 
kitchen  calling :  "  Harom  Lovos,"  returning 
with  three  plates  of  soup  upon  his  outstretched 
arm,  unburdened  by  a  coat  sleeve  ;  and  his  bank 
account  grew  and  his  children  also. 

Two  sons,  boys  still,  helped  the  father  call  out 
the  orders,  until  they  came  to  a  realization  of  the 
dignity  of  the  business  and  the  size  of  their 
father's  bank  account.  It  was  a  sorry  day  for 
Simon  Koronyi  when  bills  of  fare  appeared  upon 


240  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

his  tables.  They  were  there  only  after  a  bitter 
struggle  which  cost  him  many  a  sleepless  night 
With  the  bills  of  fare  came  waitresses,  leaving  the 
old  man  no  occupation  but  to  stand  silently,  and 
receive  the  quarters  which  were  heaped  in  great 
piles  in  the  till,  while  he  grew  daily  more  silent 
and  morose. 

The  sons  had  caught  the  enterprising  spirit  of 
this  country  ;  they  bought  a  lot  on  a  street  a  few 
blocks  nearer  Broadway  and  built  a  house  with  a 
suggestion  of  Hungary  in  its  style.  The  dining- 
room  was  frescoed  in  Hungarian  scenes,  with 
mottoes  in  the  Magyar  tongue,  and  was  soon 
transformed  into  a  fashionable  resort. 

Simon  Koronyi,  the  founder  of  "  Little  Hun- 
gary/' moved  into  the  house  reluctantly.  Stormy 
scenes  followed  the  introduction  of  American 
dishes  into  the  bill  of  fare,  and  when  as  a  last 
straw  a  cash  register  appeared  on  the  counter, 
the  old  man's  heart  almost  broke.  Hesitatingly, 
his  gentle  old  fingers  moved  over  the  keys  of  the 
machine,  but  he  was  pushed  rudely  aside  by  the 
hurrying  hand  of  his  younger  son.  Thus  dis- 
honoured in  the  sight  of  his  guests,  Simon 
Koronyi,  tottering  like  a  drunken  man,  went  to 
his  apartments  up-stairs,  and  there  remained 
until  the  "  Chevra  Kedisha,"  the  Jewish  Funeral 
Society,  carried  him  to  his  last  resting  place. 

A  few  blocks  north  of  these  fashionable  "  Lit- 


LITTLE  HUNGARY  241 

tie  Hungary s,"  the  real  Hungary  begins,  and 
hither  come  the  "  Magyars  "  as  the  ruling  race  in 
Hungary  is  called.  If  you  call  them  Slavs  they 
will  reject  it  as  an  insult. 

The  Magyar  has  not  the  slightest  relation  to 
the  Slavs,  unless  it  be  that  of  ruling  a  portion  of 
them  with  a  rather  iron  hand,  and  hating  all  of 
them  proportionately.  The  Magyar's  closest  re- 
lation is  to  the  Finns  on  the  north  and  to  the 
Turks  in  the  east  of  Europe,  and  he  is  classed 
anthropologically  as  a  Ugro-Finn.  In  his  devel- 
opment he  has  leaned  closely  to  the  west,  having 
a  Germanic  culture  while  still  retaining  a  some- 
what untamed  Asiatic  nature,  which  manifests  it- 
self in  nothing  worse  than  a  love  of  fast  horses, 
fiery  wine,  and  the  wild  music  with  which  the 
gypsy  bewitches  him,  and  draws  the  loose 
change  out  of  the  pockets  of  his  tight-fitting 
trousers. 

In  that  strange  conglomerate  of  races  and 
nationalities  called  the  Austro-Hungarian  Em- 
pire, the  Magyar  has  gained  a  dominant  in- 
fluence, and  although  numerically  among  the 
smallest,  he  has  gained  for  himself  the  greatest 
privileges,  and  practically  dictates  the  policy  of 
the  Empire.  Upon  those  rich  plains  by  the 
Danube  and  the  Theis,  he  has  been  a  plowman 
who  enjoyed  the  fruits  of  his  toil  as  long  as  the 
marauding  Turk  would  let  him,  furnishing  wheat 
and  corn  for  the  rest  of  Europe,  and  gaining  not 


242  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

a  little  wealth  since  his  arch-enemy  has  been 
driven  back  into  peace.  What  he  has  made  of 
his  country  in  the  last  forty  years  of  internal  and 
external  peace,  how  he  has  created  for  himself  a 
capital  which  surpasses  Vienna,  and  built  factories 
and  railroads  unrivalled  anywhere,  forms  a  glorious 
page  in  the  history  of  Europe. 

From  this  comparatively  wealthy  country ; 
from  its  freedom,  its  broad  prairies  and  its  pic- 
turesque village  life,  there  have  come  to  America 
one  hundred  thousand  men  and  women  who  are 
hard  to  wean  from  this  Magyar  land,  but  who, 
like  all  others,  finally  lose  themselves  in  the 
national  life,  bringing  into  it  fewer  vices  and 
more  virtues  than  we  ever  connect  with  the 
Hungarian  as  he  is  superficially  known  among 
us.  In  Little  Hungary  rosy-cheeked  maidens 
with  bare  arms  akimbo,  stand  in  many  a  doorway 
while  their  swains  court  them  on  the  street  as 
they  were  in  the  habit  of  doing  at  home.  Nearly 
every  second  house  advertises  "  Sor-Bor "  or 
"  Palenka  "  for  sale — the  wine,  beer,  and  whiskey 
to  which  the  Magyar  is  devoted ;  everywhere 
one  hears  the  sound  of  the  cymbal,  that  un- 
promising instrument  which  looks  more  like  a 
kitchen  utensil  than  anything  else,  but  out  of 
which  the  gypsy  hammers  sweet  music.  Little 
Hungary  has  but  a  small  domain  in  New  York ; 
it  ends  abruptly  with  more  restaurants  in  which 
gulyas,  the  favourite  stew  of  the  Magyar,  lures 


LITTLE  HUNGARY  243 

the  appetite;  close  by  is  Little  Bohemia,  and 
finally  the  big  Germany  which  overshadows  every 
other  nationality. 

The  Hungary  of  New  York,  however,  is  only 
a  stopping  place, — is  more  Jewish  than  Magyar, 
and  consequently  does  not  promise  a  good  field 
for  observation.  In  Cleveland  some  twenty 
thousand  Magyars  live  together  round  about 
those  giant  steel  mills  which  send  their  black 
smoke  like  a  pall  over  that  much  alive  but  very 
dirty  city.  Although  street  after  street  is  occu- 
pied solely  by  them,  I  have  not  seen  a  house  that 
shows  neglect,  and  the  battle  with  Cleveland  dirt 
is  waged  fiercely  here,  judging  by  the  clean 
doorsteps,  window-panes,  and  white  curtains 
which  I  saw  at  nearly  every  house.  A  large 
Catholic  church,  with  its  parochial  school  dedi- 
cated to  St.  Elizabeth,  the  Hungarian  queen, 
shows  that  the  Magyar  does  not  neglect  his 
religion.  There  are  also  a  Greek  Catholic 
church  and  a  flourishing  Protestant  congrega- 
tion. A  weekly  newspaper  keeps  the  Hun- 
garians in  touch  with  one  another  and  with  the 
homeland,  although  it  does  not  represent  the 
Magyar  spirit  either  by  its  contents  or  through 
the  personality  of  its  editor,  who  has  no  influence 
among  his  countrymen.  I  looked  in  vain  for  a 
Hungarian  political  "  boss,"  for  no  party  can 
claim  these  people  exclusively.  Social  Democ- 
racy has  made  great  gains  among  them,  which 


244  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

is  due  in  no  small  measure  to  the  fact  that  they 
come  from  a  comparatively  wealthy  country, 
from  conditions  which  are  not  unbearable,  and 
from  something  of  ease  and  comfort;  and  so, 
finding  the  work  in  the  iron-mills  hard  and 
grinding,  they  soon  grow  dissatisfied,  which 
means — Social  Democracy.  A  sort  of  pessi- 
mistic philosophy  is  developed,  and  the  happy 
Hungarians  grow  melancholy,  dejected,  and 
homesick.  They  cling  with  rare  tenacity  to  the 
fatherland,  in  which  they  have  a  just  pride,  and 
whenever  the  opportunity  offers  itself  they  show 
how  much  they  love  it.  The  erection  of  a  monu- 
ment to  Louis  Kossuth  by  men  and  women  of 
the  labouring  classes,  the  enthusiasm  with  which 
it  was  dedicated,  the  festivities  which  recalled  by 
speech,  song,  and  dress  the  greatness  of  the  man 
whose  memory  they  honoured,  speak  much  for 
their  idealistic  and  loyal  love  of  country. 

Of  all  foreigners  the  Hungarians  are  among 
the  most  tolerant  towards  the  Jews,  who  live  in 
large  numbers  in  Hungary,  while  Hungarian 
Jews  in  Cleveland  love  to  be  known  as  Magyars 
and  are  treated  as  such  by  their  fellow  country- 
men. The  Magyar's  good  nature  is  also  shown 
by  his  treatment  of  the  gypsies,  who  have  fol- 
lowed him  in  large  numbers  to  America,  and  are 
really  a  sort  of  parasite,  being  supported  by  the 
easy-going  and  pleasure-loving  Magyars,  who 
dance  the  czardas  to  the  fiery  notes  of  fiddles 


LITTLE  HUNGARY  245 

and  cymbals  whose  owners  finally  possess  the 
largest  portion  of  their  patron's  wages. 

The  Hungarian  gypsy  boy,  who  is  supposed 
to  choose  between  the  violin  and  the  penny, 
must  in  most  cases  take  the  two,  for  in  Hungary 
as  in  America  he  is  both  musician  and  thief 
with  equal  adeptness.  One  gypsy  in  Cleve- 
land keeps  a  saloon  which  is  a  combination 
of  the  Hungarian  "  czarda  "  (inn)  and  its  Amer- 
ican namesake,  the  saloon,  and  it  combines 
the  evils  of  both  institutions.  The  regular  bar 
is  supplemented  by  rickety  chairs  and  tables 
and  a  clear  space  for  the  dancing  floor,  with- 
out which  the  Hungarian  czarda  does  not 
exist.  On  Saturday  night,  the  soot  of  the  week 
washed  away,  the  Hungarian  is  found  here 
in  all  his  native  glory.  His  moustache,  twisted 
to  the  fineness  of  a  needle-point,  is  his  most 
prominent  national  characteristic,  unless  it  be  his 
small,  shining  eyes  which  barely  escape  looking 
out  into  the  world  from  Mongolian  openings. 
A  small  head  and  prominent  cheek-bones  are  also 
characteristic,  while  the  colour  of  the  hair  is 
dark  brown  and  black,  the  blond  being  almost 
unknown.  He  differentiates  himself  from  his 
neighbour  the  Slav  by  his  agility  of  both  temper 
and  limbs,  and  to  see  him  dance  a  czardas,  to 
hear  him  sing  it  and  the  gypsy  play  it,  is 
as  good  as  seeing  that  other  acrobatic  per- 
formance, a  circus.  When  the  gypsy  inn- 


246  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

keeper  knows  that  his  guests  have  pay-day 
money  in  their  pockets,  he  has  ready  a  band 
of  gypsies,  who  look  shabby  enough,  and 
very  unpromising  from  an  artistic  standpoint; 
the  leader,  who  plays  the  first  violin,  tunes  it 
with  remarkable  care  and  tenderness,  the  second 
violin  scrapes  a  few  hoarse  notes  after  him,  the 
bass-viol  comes  in  grudgingly,  and  the  cymbal- 
player  exercises  his  fingers  by  beating  cotton- 
wrapped  sticks  over  the  strings  of  his  strange  in- 
strument. One  patriotic  youth,  who  has  had  just 
enough  liquid  fire  poured  into  him,  now  lifts  his 
voice  and  sings  a  song  of  the  puszta  (the  Hun- 
garian prairie),  of  the  horses  and  cattle  which  graze 
upon  it,  and  of  the  buxom  maiden  who  draws 
water  from  the  village  well.  Slowly,  pathetically, 
almost  painfully  melancholy,  the  notes  ring  out 
as  if  the  singer  were  bewailing  some  great  loss, 
the  musicians  follow  upon  their  instruments  as 
sorrowful  mourners  follow  a  hearse ;  but  all  at 
once  the  measure  becomes  brisk  and  the  notes 
jubilant,  the  singer  and  the  musicians  are  caught 
as  by  a  fever,  faster  and  faster  the  bows  fly  over 
the  strings,  the  cymbal  is  beaten  furiously,  and 
the  bass-viol  seems  in  a  roaring  rage. 

Sunday  morning  finds  the  dancers  sobered  and 
reverent  on  the  way  to  church,  most  of  them 
going  to  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  in  which 
a  zealous  priest  blesses,  but  is  not  blessed  by 
them.  Seldom  have  I  found  among  foreigners 


LITTLE  HUNGARY  247 

such  frank  criticism  of  the  priest  and  yet  such 
loyalty  to  the  Church.  The  Hungarian  Catholic 
is  not  narrow ;  he  is  much  more  liberal  than  the 
Slav  or  the  German  Austrian,  and  a  bigoted 
priest  may  hold  him  to  the  Church  but  will  not 
win  him  to  himself.  It  is  always  hard  to  judge 
of  a  priest  or  preacher  from  the  reports  of  dis- 
gruntled members  of  his  flock,  but  the  Catholics 
seldom  speak  ill  of  their  shepherd  unless  there  is 
much  hard  truth  to  tell.  The  following,  which  I 
heard  from  trustworthy  sources,  is  characteristic. 
At  a  meeting  of  one  of  the  lodges  the  motion 
was  made  to  have  a  mass  said  on  a  certain 
memorial  day  ;  the  priest  arose  to  second  the 
motion,  and  said,  "  We  have  two  kinds  of  mass, 
the  five-dollar  and  the  ten-dollar  one,  and  I 
would  not  advise  you  to  have  the  cheap  one." 
True  or  untrue,  the  fact  remains  that  this  priest 
has  built  a  fine  church  and  a  magnificent  pa- 
rochial school.  He  is  a  good  financier,  and  I 
doubt  not  that  he  is  such  for  the  glory  of  his 
Church  and  not  for  his  own  enrichment ;  I  can 
testify  to  the  fact  that  he  has  done  much  good, 
that  he  has  quieted  much  turbulence,  that  he  is 
not  a  friend  of  strong  drink,  and  that  he  is  a 
narrow  but  exceedingly  careful  shepherd  of  his 
flock. 

The  Greek  Catholic  priest  in  Cleveland  was 
driven  from  the  church  by  his  independent  pa- 
rishioners, who  found  him  not  only  a  good  finan- 


248  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

cier,  but  a  bad  man,  a  "  peddler  in  holy  goods," 
as  they  called  him,  who  was  ready  to  dispense 
his  blessing  to  man  and  beast  for  money,  large 
or  small,  or  for  a  drink  more  often  large  than 
small.  The  Protestant  church  is  shepherded  by 
a  young  man  from  the  Oberlin  Theological 
Seminary,  who  is  in  touch  with  the  American 
life  and  its  interpretation  of  the  Christian  Church 
and  ministry. 

The  Protestant  Hungarian  is,  as  a  rule,  better 
educated,  morally  on  a  higher  level,  and  in  Amer- 
ica more  quickly  assimilated,  than  his  Catholic 
brother.  In  Hungary  this  has  well-defined 
causes.  First,  splendidly  equipped  Protestant 
ministers,  not  a  few  of  them  graduates  of  Eng- 
lish and  Scotch  universities  and  imbued  by  the 
Puritan  spirit  of  those  countries.  Second,  a 
Protestant  theology  of  the  Calvinistic  type, 
which,  harsh  and  hard  as  it  is,  makes  every- 
where strong  men  and  women,  and  which  in 
Hungary  distinguishes  the  Calvinistic  communi- 
ties from  the  Catholic  by  a  severer  philosophy  of 
life  and  a  much  more  moral  conduct.  The  third 
cause  may  in  the  eyes  of  some  persons  be  the 
most  real  one.  Wherever  a  religious  commu- 
nity is  in  the  minority  and  is  or  has  been  severely 
persecuted,  it  becomes  thrifty  and  highly  moral. 
Whatever  the  reason,  the  fact  exists  and  is  a 
pleasant  one  to  chronicle. 

Not  so  pleasant  is  the  problem  that,  in  com- 


LITTLE  HUNGARY  249 

mon  with  all  foreigners,  the  Magyar  presents. 
Neither  church,  priest,  nor  preacher  holds  au- 
thority over  him  very  long  after  he  reaches  these 
shores.  He  rebels  against,  loses  interest  in  his 
church,  and  finally  ceases  to  support  it ;  neglect 
not  seldom  ends  in  hate,  and  a  rude  atheism  is  a 
common  disease  among  these  people.  Besides 
this,  it  is  not  easy  to  find  enough  and  suitable 
priests  and  preachers  for  these  foreigners,  as 
slight  differences  in  language  call  for  different 
pastors,  and  in  Cleveland  alone  the  Church 
could  use  advantageously  men  of  twenty  na- 
tionalities of  whose  existence  the  average  man 
has  scarcely  any  idea.  The  imported  pastor  is 
almost  always  in  discord  with  his  congregation, 
which  is  generally  in  accord  with  the  freer 
American  spirit  and  cannot  be  treated  as  he 
treated  his  parish  in  Hungary  or  Poland. 
Many,  perhaps  most,  of  the  pastors  who  are  edu- 
cated abroad  have  no  sympathy  with  the  demo- 
cratic spirit  of  our  country,  and  they  frequently 
complain  of  its  effect  upon  their  authority.  I 
met  one  such  priest  on  his  way  back  to  Europe. 
He  was  leaving  his  work  because,  as  he  said,  "  I 
could  find  nobody  in  my  parish  to  black  my 
boots,  for  everybody  considered  himself  as  good 
as  I  am.  In  the  old  country  my  people  would 
stop  on  the  street  and  kiss  my  hand,  but  here 
the  children  say,  *  Hello,  Father/  and  go  on 
their  way."  The  ministers  trained  in  America 


250  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

are  few,  and  these  are  yet  young  and  inexperi- 
enced. 

The  English  Protestant  churches  are  not  seri- 
ously concerned  about  this  growing  problem,  the 
solution  of  which  does  not  consist  only  in  build- 
ing missions  and  paying  money  into  the  treasury, 
but  also  in  presenting  to  these  foreigners  a  liv- 
ing, acting,  and  blessing  Christ,  who,  when  up- 
lifted, draws  all  men  unto  Him. 

It  is  good  to  be  able  to  say  of  people  who 
come  to  a  strange  country,  as  of  the  Hungarian, 
that  they  maintain  their  integrity.  He  is,  as  a 
rule,  honest,  easily  imposed  upon,  somewhat 
quarrelsome,  addicted  to  drink,  not  so  indus- 
trious as  the  Slav  but  much  more  intelligent, 
comprehending  more  easily  and  assimilating 
more  quickly.  He  is  not  a  problem  but  a  lesson. 
Crossing  the  ocean  in  December  on  the  Red  Star 
Line  steamer  Vaterland,  I  found  among  the  mix- 
ture of  steerage  passengers  over  two  hundred 
Magyars,  or,  as  we  more  exactly  call  them,  Hun- 
garians. I  was  eager  to  know  what  they  were 
carrying  home  to  their  native  country  after  years 
of  living  with  us,  and  I  found  that  many  of  them 
seemed  completely  untouched  by  the  American 
life.  Their  language,  spoken  by  but  a  few  peo- 
ple in  Europe,  is  almost  unknown  in  America, 
and  the  man  without  a  language  is  almost  always 
"the  man  without  a  country."  If  anything, 
these  poor  creatures  seemed  worse  than  when 


LITTLE  HUNGARY  251 

they  came,  for  many  of  them  had  failed  and  were 
broken  in  spirit.  Some  whose  tongues  had  be- 
come loosened  were  aware  of  the  larger  life,  and 
were  full  of  the  praises  of  America.  They  were 
going  back  to  look  again  upon  the  village  in 
which  they  were  born,  in  which  they  made  whis- 
tles from  the  hanging  willows  by  the  creek,  where 
they  chased  the  pigs  info  the  mud-puddles,  where 
they  lived  their  small  and  simple  life,  and  to 
which  they  were  now  returning  as  travelled  men. 
They  had  crossed  the  ocean,  seen  miles  of  earth, 
had  struggled  with  wind  and  weather,  felt 
freedom's  breezes  blow,  and  had  grown  mightily. 
Brain,  heart,  and  soul  had  developed,  or  perhaps 
only  changed,  but  even  change  is  experience,  if 
not  always  life  and  growth.  It  was  good  to  talk 
to  these  men  who  had  "  arrived,"  who  saw 
things  as  we  see  them  and  felt  them  as  we  feel 
them,  and  who  carried  American  flags  in  their 
pockets  to  show  to  their  friends  and  who  gloried 
in  their  American  citizenship.  "  I  love  the  old 
country,"  said  one  of  them,  "  but  I  love  America 
more.  Stay  in  Hungary  ?  Oh,  no  !  I  do  not 
even  want  to  die  there,  but  if  I  do,  I  want  them 
to  wrap  me  in  this  shroud,"  and  he  pulled  out  of 
his  pocket  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 


XVII 

THE  ITALIAN  AT  HOME 

SOMBRE  as  is  the  Slavic  world,  from  which 
both  Jew  and  Slav  emigrate,  so  bright  and 
joyous  is  all  Italy  the  home  of  most  of  the  Latins 
who  come  to  us. 

Nowhere  in  Europe  does  the  sky  seem  so  blue, 
the  stars  so  brilliant  in  their  setting,  or  the  colour 
of  earth  and  sea  so  entrancing.  Approach  it  as 
you  will  it  fills  you  and  thrills  you  with  pleasure 
unspeakable,  and  to  eyes  accustomed  to  the 
sober  plains  of  Russia  and  the  dull  colourlessness 
of  her  villages,  it  seems  as  unreal  as  a  dream  or 
the  stage  setting  of  grand  opera. 

Venice,  Genoa,  Naples,  Milan,  Florence,  Rome  ; 
these  names  conjure  more  in  one's  vision  than 
the  pen  can  record.  But  one  could  mention  a 
hundred  little  spots  to  us  nameless,  towns  with 
their  own  beauty,  with  their  own  art  treasures 
and  their  own  large  influences  upon  the  history 
of  mankind.  All  Italy  has  mountains  and  plains, 
the  North  and  the  South,  vast  natural  contrasts ; 
yet  there  is  everywhere  the  one  inexplicable 
charm  which  makes  the  name  of  the  country 
synonymous  with  beauty  and  art. 

Yet  while  Italy  is  one  the  Italian  is  not.  A 
252 


THE  ITALIAN  AT  HOME  253 

great  gulf  still  divides  the  people  of  different 
provinces  and  districts,  and  old  political  divisions 
still  survive,  leaving  their  marks  upon  the  speech, 
and  the  character  of  the  individual.  All  the 
older  and  newer  invasions  have  left  their  traces, 
and  wherever  an  alien  army  has  come,  it  has 
plowed  its  way  with  the  sword  into  the  life  of 
these  impressionable  people. 

Where  the  Slav  has  touched  the  Italian,  you 
see  his  heavy  finger  marks  in  a  rougher  exterior, 
a  slower  gait,  a  harsher  speech,  more  industry 
and  less  art.  Where  the  Austro-Germans  have 
enthralled  and  governed  him  you  will  find  him 
more  governable,  more  sedate,  more  a  statesman 
and  less  a  revolutionist,  "  a  captain  of  industry  " 
rather  than  a  leader  of  brigands,  more  a  business 
man  and  less  a  dreamer.  Where  the  French 
crossed  the  mountains  they  made  a  gateway  for 
their  tastes  and  habits,  which  blended  quickly 
and  easily  into  the  Italian  character,  for  the 
Italians  were  never  very  unlike  the  French  who 
were  their  friends  and  enemies  in  turn,  and  often 
both  at  the  same  time.  Where  the  Arabians 
and  the  Greek  touched  the  South  with  thought 
and  thoughtfulness,  with  culture  and  vices,  with 
rest  and  restlessness,  these  contrasts  are  accentu- 
ated in  the  Italian,  who,  although  small  in 
stature,  is  great  in  passions  and  desires. 

Yet  frugality  and  industry  have  been  forced 
upon  him  by  the  climate  and  by  economic  con- 


254  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

ditions.  The  rest  of  Europe  long  ago  became 
conscious  of  this  fact.  When  railroads  just  be- 
gan to  be  built  the  Italian  blasted  his  way 
through  the  mountains,  and  I  am  sure  there  is 
not  a  tunnel  which  he  did  not  help  to  dig,  and 
perhaps  not  a  great  stone  bridge  whose  founda- 
tions he  did  not  lay.  Until  comparatively  re- 
cently the  Italian  seemed  indispensable  in  all 
such  undertakings  and  in  a  greater  portion  of 
Europe  his  camp  could  be  seen  wherever  the 
railroad  was  making  a  new  path  for  civilization. 

Never  given  to  alcoholic  excess  like  the  Slav, 
more  inventive  than  his  duller  competitor,  easily 
adjusted  to  any  task  or  condition  ;  he  would  lie 
uncomplainingly  in  a  ditch  were  the  weather  hot 
or  cold,  wet  or  dry,  and  for  a  comparatively  small 
wage  do  a  day's  full  work,  which  the  natives  of 
these  countries  seemed  unable  to  do. 

The  pioneer  of  Italian  migrations  was  his 
lazier  brother,  who,  with  a  trained  monkey  and  a 
hand-organ  out  of  tune,  made  his  way  from  place 
to  place ;  he  also  came  first  across  the  Atlantic 
and  caused  many  of  us  to  believe  that  he  was 
the  typical  Italian. 

The  tourist  who  is  besieged  by  the  beggars  in 
Naples,  and  who  sees  the  lazy  Lazzaroni  stretched 
out  upon  the  ground  with  his  face  turned  to- 
wards the  baking  sun,  sees  the  exceptional 
Italian,  although  this  exception  seems  to  be 
numerous. 


THE  ITALIAN  AT  HOME  255 

As  a  rule  the  Italian  asks  for  but  little  in  life. 
He  lives  on  olives  and  macaroni,  cornmeal  mush 
or  Polenta,  as  it  is  called,  and  is  content.  He 
rarely  drinks  to  excess,  his  wine  being  often 
watered  to  such  a  degree  that  it  can  no  more  be 
called  an  alcoholic  beverage.  His  home  need 
not  be  either  beautiful  or  commodious  when  all 
out  of  doors  is  his,  when  God  has  set  ornaments 
into  the  heavens  and  calls  out  of  the  earth  such 
beauties  as  no  mortal  can  reproduce.  The  very 
rags  which  cover  his  body  become  picturesque 
as  the  sunlight  plays  upon  them  with  its  wonder- 
ful colouring. 

Satisfied  as  is  the  Italian  at  home  by  his  con- 
dition, he  is  equally  unsatisfied  with  any  restraint 
by  authority  ;  lawlessness  has  cut  so  deep  into 
his  life,  that  it  may  be  said  to  be  a  natural  charac- 
teristic. The  root  of  it  lies  in  the  fact  that  for 
centuries  the  lawmakers  were  aliens  and  con- 
querors, the  laws  being  made  for  the  strong  and 
not  for  the  weak  ;  to  oppress  and  not  to  protect. 

Brigandage  and  heroism  often  became  synony- 
mous, while  murder  and  theft  were  easily  excused 
upon  the  grounds  of  expediency.  Much  of  this 
spirit  has  remained  in  all  classes  of  society,  es- 
pecially in  the  south,  and  the  population  is  so 
used  to  it,  that  the  criminal  is  more  often  pitied 
than  condemned,  while  the  people  would  rather 
put  a  halo  around  the  heads  of  assassins  and  mur- 
derers, than  a  rope  about  their  necks.  Modern 


256  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

psychology,  under  the  leadership  of  the  Italian 
physician  Lombroso,  has  encouraged  this  leniency 
towards  criminals  and  the  Italian  when  he  can 
find  no  other  excuse  for  a  crime  lays  it  to  heredi- 
tary influences,  which  make  the  criminal  still 
more  an  unfortunate  man.  Rarely  does  he  call  a 
prison  by  its  right  name ;  it  is  the  "  place  for  un- 
fortunates." The  criminal  is  regarded  as  an  un- 
fortunate one,  and  heinous  indeed  must  be  the 
crime  which  is  looked  upon  as  more  than  a  mis- 
fortune. 

The  various  secret  societies  in  Italy  which  once 
had  political  bearing,  have  become  largely  a 
menace  to  organized  society,  and  a  school  for  the 
worst  kind  of  crimes.  The  consequence  is  that 
many  of  the  criminals  who  come  to  our  shores 
are  Italians  who  are  trying  to  escape  punishment 
or  who  are  entangled  in  the  meshes  of  the  Maffia 
or  Camorra,  and  the  officials  are  very  glad  to 
have  their  room  rather  than  their  company 
Evidences  are  not  lacking  that  their  way  out  is 
made  easy,  even  if  it  cannot  be  proved  that  the 
government  aids  them  to  come. 

It  does  not  follow  that  the  Italian  is  dishonest ; 
he  compares  well  with  the  average  European 
who  comes  to  us,  but  in  his  ethics  he  is  decidedly 
mixed,  and  his  poetical  temper  does  not  always 
help  him  to  tell  the  exact  truth.  His  exceeding 
great  politeness  prevents  him  from  saying  no 
when  he  means  it,  and  often  when  one  feels  him* 


THE  ITALIAN  AT  HOME  257 

self  aggrieved  by  what  seems  a  deception,  it  is 
only  an  overplus  of  good  manners.  He  is  ex- 
tremely amorous  in  his  wooing,  jealous  when  he 
has  attained  his  end,  and  fights  for  his  love  to  the 
death.  He  is  generous,  if  not  chivalrous  to  his 
wife,  and  with  proper  training  in  America  he  may 
become  a  docile  husband.  Even  now  he  is  one 
of  the  few  European  fathers  who  may  push  a 
baby  carriage  through  the  streets  without  losing 
caste  by  it.  Travelling  through  Italy  I  have 
come  upon  many  a  husband  who  took  complete 
charge  of  the  baby  during  the  journey,  while  his 
wife  looked  out  of  the  window  and  enjoyed  the 
leisure.  The  ties  which  bind  him  to  his  wife  are 
rather  easily  broken,  due  to  the  fact  that  many 
marriages  are  contracted  early,  so  that  the  wife 
passes  from  youth  to  age  quickly,  and  great 
family  cares  are  apt  to  make  him  feel  that  he 
would  better  move  on. 

Socialism  tinged  by  anarchy  has  deeply  eaten 
into  the  life  of  the  common  people  and  is  re- 
garded by  most  Italians  as  an  important  factor 
in  the  control  of  the  government,  in  which  cor- 
ruption and  graft  are  nearly  as  common  as  in 
Russia.  While  better  conditions  are  in  sight 
they  have  not  yet  come,  and  taxation  is  as  heavy 
as  it  is  unjustly  raised  and  distributed. 

Eighty-four  per  cent,  of  all  the  taxes  raised  are 
expended  upon  the  national  debt,  the  administra- 
tion and  defense ;  while  all  the  rest  of  the  national 


258  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

needs  must  be  met  by  only  seventeen  per  cent. 
But  2.79  per  cent,  of  that  sum  is  used  for  educa- 
tion, the  consequence  being  that  fifty  per  cent,  of 
the  population  of  Italy  are  illiterate,  that  the  public 
schools,  both  government  and  church  schools, 
are  poor,  and  that  the  high  schools  and  univer- 
sities are  suffering  from  the  lack  of  proper 
equipment  and  are  not  able  to  keep  pace  with 
modern  advancement  in  education.  Compulsory 
education  is  a  law  never  enforced,  and  yet  suf- 
frage depends  upon  the  ability  to  read  and  write ; 
therefore  over  6,000,000  voters  are  robbed  of 
their  right  to  vote.  The  king  is  loved  for  the 
simplicity  of  his  life,  the  honesty  of  his  purposes, 
and  for  his  adaptability  to  modern  thought  and 
conditions.  But  this  cannot  be  said  of  most  of 
his  ministers  and  state  officials.  The  accepted 
name  for  an  official  used  to  be  and  in  a  measure 
still  is  "  Goberno  Ladro,"  which  means  govern- 
ment thief. 

The  Italian  is  a  good  business  man  and  a  good 
organizer,  having  a  talent  for  the  dollar  which  to- 
day makes  him  a  new  business  force  in  Europe, 
and  one  to  be  reckoned  with  ;  especially  if  he  im- 
proves his  business  morals,  which  are  very  poor. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  Italy  is  the  centre  of  the 
most  dogmatic  Christian  Church,  the  Italian  is 
tolerant  towards  those  of  other  faith  or  race,  even 
while  being  superstitious  to  a  degree.  He  loves 
the  pomp  and  splendour  of  the  Church  but  has  not 


THE  ITALIAN  AT  HOME  259 

been  deeply  touched  by  her  ethical  features,  and 
is  in  a  measure,  as  much  pagan  as  when  his  fore- 
fathers worshipped  local  deities  ;  although  now  he 
calls  them  patron  saints. 

One  might  justly  accuse  the  Catholic  clergy  of 
not  having  risen  to  their  responsibility,  of  having 
increased  the  enmity  rather  than  the  love  of  a 
•large  portion  of  the  population,  of  having  played 
politics  on  the  off  side  and  of  having  had  no  social 
vision.  But  a  charge  like  this  though  true,  has 
back  of  it  certain  facts  which  would,  perchance, 
show  us  the  Roman  priests  in  a  better  light. 
There  are  priests  and  priests,  bishops  and  bishops, 
even  as  there  are  popes  and  popes.  If  the  clergy 
of  Italy  was  made  after  the  pattern  of  the  present 
Pope,  if  it  had  his  spirit,  his  devotion  and  his 
piety,  the  Italian  might  still  become  a  Christian 
who  would  prove  the  power  of  his  faith  and  who 
would  be  thoroughly  genuine  and  tolerant ;  not  a 
dogmatist,  a  thorough  optimist,  a  man  of  great 
faith,  and  consequently  not  a  good  politician. 

We  know  enough  of  Pope  Pius  X  to  wish  for 
Italy  and  for  America  also  that  he  might  become 
the  model  for  all  Roman  Catholics  ;  then  indeed 
the  immigrant  would  be  to  us  no  problem  but  a 
blessing.  Yet  one  cannot  judge  the  hierarchy  by 
the  Pope,  and  there  are  in  Italy  not  a  few  discern- 
ing men  who  distrust  the  Church  the  more,  in  the 
measure  in  which  it  has  a  good  Pope  behind 
whom  to  hide  its  evil  designs. 


26o  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

Yet  who  that  has  looked  into  the  face  of  Pope 
Pius  X  will  ever  forget  its  strong,  yet  sweet 
manliness  ?  He  must  indeed  have  no  religious 
sensibilities  who  does  not  realize  when  in  his 
presence  that  he  is  face  to  face  with  a  man  of 
God.  Shortly  after  his  elevation  to  his  office  he 
stood  before  a  congregation  of  some  ten  thousand 
people  who  filled  the  court  of  St.  Damassia.  His 
face  shone  from  the  pleasure  of  loving  those  who 
stood  before  him,  and  they  could  not  help  loving 
him.  He  began  to  speak,  and  gradually  a  deep- 
felt  silence  crept  over  the  vast  assemblage.  "  I 
am  so  glad,"  he  said,  "  my  dearly  beloved  friends, 
to  see  so  many  of  you  here,  and  I  thank  you  all 
from  the  depths  of  my  heart.  They  tell  me  that 
society  is  corrupt,  full  of  weakness  and  disease, 
a  sickly  dying  body,  but  I,"  he  said,  and  his 
voice  was  filled  by  the  strength  of  his  faith,  "  do 
not  believe  it."  He  then  told  the  simple  story 
of  the  child  which  Jesus  raised  from  the  dead ; 
he  told  it  as  simply  as  it  was  written,  as  a 
disciple  of  Jesus  who  was  an  eye-witness  might 
have  told  it  to  the  humble  folk  of  Judea.  He  told 
how  Jesus  with  His  companions  came,  how  He 
looked  upon  the  girl,  and  as  He  laid  His  hands 
upon  her  head  said,  "  The  child  is  not  dead  ;  it 
is  not  true." 

With  his  face  bathed  in  a  flame  of  holy  pas- 
sion the  great  pope  and  preacher  said  to  the 
breathless  multitude :  "  Non  e  vero  " — it  is  not 


THE  ITALIAN  AT  HOME  261 

true ;  "  Non  lo  credo " — I  do  not  believe  it ; 
"  and  if  we  all  cling  to  one  another  I  believe  that 
humanity  still  has  vitality,  and  that  it  will  come 
to  full  life  and  health,  as  long  ago  did  the  little 
child  in  Palestine." 

As  I  look  upon  the  Italian  at  home  with  his 
many  social  diseases  which  have  so  deeply  eaten 
'into  his  life  that  one  might  judge  him  incurable 
— I  nevertheless  say :  "  Non  e  vero,  Non  lo 
credo."  It  is  not  true,  I  do  not  believe  it. 
True,  my  faith  in  his  healing  does  not  rest  with 
the  Pope,  in  spite  of  his  native  piety  and  his 
sterling  character.  The  Italian  is  sick  and  sore 
because  the  Church  which  has  so  long  been  his 
physician,  acknowledges  no  error,  and  even  its 
humble  Pope  will  not  persuade  it  that  it  must 
radically  change  its  treatment ;  this  not  only  for 
the  sake  of  Italy  but  for  the  sake  of  America 
also.  The  most  dangerous  element  which  can 
come  to  us  from  any  country,  is  that  which  comes 
smarting  under  real  or  fancied  wrongs,  com- 
mitted by  those  who  should  have  been  its  helpers 
and  healers.  Such  an  element  Italy  furnishes  in 
a  remarkably  great  degree,  and  I  have  no  hesi- 
tation in  saying  that  it  is  our  most  dangerous 
element 


XVIII 

THE  ITALIAN  IN  AMERICA 

IT  is  hard  to  determine  how  long  it  is  since  the 
first  Savoyard  came  to  our  country  with  his  trained 
bears,  making  them  dance  to  the  squeaky  notes 
of  his  reed  instrument,  as  he  wandered  from  town 
to  town.  He  and  the  man  with  the  monkey  and 
organ  were  of  the  same  adventurous  stock,  and 
they  were  the  vanguard  of  a  vast  army  of  men 
who  were  to  come ;  first  with  a  push-cart,  later 
with  shovel  and  pickax.  Not  to  destroy,  but  to 
build  up  and  to  help  in  the  great  conquest  of 
nature's  resources,  so  abundantly  bestowed  upon 
this  continent. 

While  the  average  Italian  immigrant  is  not 
regarded  by  any  of  us  as  a  public  benefactor,  it 
is  a  question  just  how  far  we  could  have  stretched 
our  railways  and  ditches  without  him  ;  for  he  now 
furnishes  the  largest  percentage  of  the  kind  of 
labour  which  we  call  unskilled,  and  he  is  found 
wherever  a  shovel  of  earth  needs  to  be  turned,  or 
a  bed  of  rock  is  to  be  blasted.  Hundreds  of  thou- 
sands come  each  year  and  each  one  of  them  fits 
into  the  work  awaiting  him,  moving  on  to  a  new 
task  when  the  old  one  is  finished.  The  kind  of 
work  which  they  do  calls  for  unattached,  migrat- 

262 


THE  ITALIAN  IN  AMERICA        263 

ing  labour,  and  eighty  per  cent,  of  those  who 
come  have  no  marriage  ties  to  hinder  their 
movements.  When  the  winter  comes  and  out  of 
door  work  grows  slack,  or  when  the  labour  market 
is  depressed,  these  unattached  forces  return  to 
Italy  and  bask  in  its  sunshine  until  conditions  for 
labour  on  this  side  of  the  sea  grow  brighter. 
•Their  quarters,  which  are  as  near  as  possible  to 
their  work,  are  easily  recognized  ;  not  because 
they  are  more  slovenly  than  their  neighbours, 
but  because  there  is  such  a  "  helter  skelter,  I 
don't  care "  sort  of  atmosphere  about  their 
squalor.  This  comes  from  the  fact  that  they 
regard  their  quarters  as  purely  temporary,  and 
treat  them  as  one  might  a  camping-ground, 
which  to-morrow  is  to  be  abandoned  for  a  better 
site. 

Like  all  foreigners,  they  prefer  to  be  among 
their  own ;  not  so  much  from  a  feeling  of  clannish- 
ness,  although  that  is  not  absent;  but  because 
among  their  own,  they  are  safe  from  that  ridicule 
which  borders  on  cruelty,  and  with  which  the 
average  American  treats  nearly  every  stranger 
not  of  his  complexion  or  speech. 

In  passing  through  Connecticut,  where  nearly 
each  large  town  has  its  Italian  colony,  I  found 
one  lonely  Italian  asking  the  conductor  whether 
this  was  the  train  for  New  York.  "  Which  way 
want  you  go  ?  "  (Usually  the  American  thinks 
that  the  foreigner  can  understand  poor  English.) 


264  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

All  the  Italian  knew,  he  repeated :  "  New  York- 
New  York."  The  conductor  left  the  puzzled  man 
standing  on  the  platform  and  the  train  moved 
on.  I  remained  with  the  Italian  and  saw  him 
three  times  treated  similarly,  if  not  worse,  and  I 
concluded  that  it  is  not  very  safe  for  the  Italian 
to  distribute  himself  too  thinly  over  this  con- 
tinent 

The  Italian  usually  moves  into  quarters  for- 
merly occupied  by  the  Irish  or  Jews,  whose  de- 
mands have  risen  with  their  better  earnings,  and 
who  have  left  the  congested  districts  for  the  up- 
town or  the  suburbs.  At  present  it  is  no  doubt 
true  that  the  Italian  is  satisfied  by  these  quarters, 
and  that  what  nobody  wants,  he  is  ready  to  take. 
So  it  is  that  he  comes  to  the  edges  of  the  great 
Ghetto  in  New  York,  to  Bleecker  Street  and  be- 
yond, and  that  his  trail  leads  almost  into  the 
heart  of  it.  Jewish  and  Italian  push-cart  ped- 
dlers stand  side  by  side,  the  Italian  barber  shop 
seeks  Semitic  customers,  the  smells  from  the 
"  Genoese  Restaurant  "  blend  with  those  from  the 
"  Kosher  Kitchen,"  and  the  air  is  disturbed  by 
the  perfumes  of  garlic  and  paprika,  a  combina- 
tion not  half  so  bad  as  it  smells. 

In  Chicago,  "  Little  Italy  "  hovered  around  a 
large  district  condemned  to  the  sheltering  of 
vice,  and  when  good  business  sense  dictated  that 
it  be  moved  to  some  less  conspicuous  portion  of 
the  town,  it  was  immediately  invaded  by  Italians. 


THE  ITALIAN  IN  AMERICA        265 

Scarcely  a  day  had  passed,  yet  the  change  made 
was  as  complete  as  it  was  revolutionary.  Large 
plate  windows  were  broken  and  pillows  were 
stuck  into  the  aperture  to  keep  out  the  lake 
breeze  ;  the  broad  stairways  which  had  led  to 
destruction  were  slippery  now,  but  not  so  danger- 
ous as  before  ;  the  large  parlours  were  divided  and 
subdivided,  while  the  gay  paper  was  torn  from 
the  walls  ;  it  looked  as  though  conquerors  had 
come  who  were  bent  upon  destruction.  A  happy 
change  was  manifest  in  the  streets,  for  it  was 
full  of  children,  and  the  innocent  face  of  a  child 
had  not  been  seen  in  those  streets  for  years. 

Housing  conditions  among  the  Italians  are  as 
bad  as  can  be  imagined  and  the  most  crowded 
quarters  in  our  cities  are  those  inhabited  by  them. 
Four  hundred  and  ninety-two  families  in  one 
block  is  the  record,  and  it  is  held  by  New  York, 
on  Prince  Street,  between  Mott  and  Elizabeth 
Streets  ;  while  Philadelphia  can  boast  of  having 
the  most  unwholesome  tenements,  where  air  is  a 
luxury  and  daylight  unknown.  In  that  city 
thirty  families  numbering  123  persons,  were  liv- 
ing in  thirty-four  rooms. 

Of  course  the  landlord  who  builds  these  shacks 
and  the  community  which  tolerates  them,  are 
equally  to  blame.  Both  commit  a  crime  against 
society,  but  a  good  share  of  the  blame  must  fall 
upon  the  Italian  himself  for  being  satisfied  with 
such  surroundings.  He  is  of  course  anxious  to 


266  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

save  money,  and  a  decent  dwelling  in  our  large 
cities  is  a  luxury  ;  so  he  who  at  home  used  the 
heavens  for  the  roof  of  his  tenement,  and  the 
long  street  for  his  parlour,  is  naturally  content 
with  but  a  small  shelter  for  the  night. 

Considering  the  conditions  under  which  the 
Italians  live,  their  quarters  are  not  nearly  so  bad 
as  one  might  expect,  and  when  a  period  of  pros- 
perity has  come  upon  the  community,  when  it 
can  look  back  upon  a  year  or  two  of  consecutive 
work,  they  show  in  common  with  other  foreign 
quarters,  decided  improvement. 

Rather  characteristic  is  the  tenement  district 
of  Hartford,  Conn.,  which  has  gone  through  all 
the  stages  of  such  districts  in  other  cities,  is  no 
better  than  they,  and  in  many  respects  worse. 
There  are  buildings  occupied  which  would  be  con- 
demned elsewhere  as  unfit  for  human  habitation. 
There  are  whole  blocks  which  look  damp,  dingy 
and  dirty  ;  ancient  structures,  with  filth  oozing 
from  every  pore. 

Jews  and  Italians  are  the  chief  inhabitants  of 
this  district,  although  one  comes  across  a 
stranded  American  family  here  and  there,  the 
dregs  of  New  England,  the  most  hopeless  people 
in  this  new  city  of  ancient  tenements.  The  two 
nationalities  live  rather  close  together,  and  it  is  a 
mixture  of  Russian  and  Italian  dirt,  the  Italian 
article  being  much  the  cleaner. 

Walk  through  the  streets  with  me  and  you 


THE  ITALIAN  IN  AMERICA        267 

will  readily  forget  that  you  are  in  America.  Here 
Pietro,  the  shoemaker,  on  his  three-legged  stool, 
mends  boots  out  on  the  streets ;  while  Lorenzo 
shaves  his  customer  upon  the  pavement  in  front 
of  his  shop.  Gossiping  groups  of  swarthy 
neighbours  sit  together  upon  the  threshhold  of 
their  homes,  and  Bianca,  Lorenzo's  wife,  is  com- 
plaining in  a  loud  voice  that  Pietro,  the  shoe- 
maker, has  called  her  a  hussy.  "  And  he  a  low- 
down  Sicilian,  a  good  for  nothing,  has  called  me, 
the  barber's  wife,  a  hussy."  She  is  rousing  the 
ire  of  her  neighbours,  and  woe  to  Pietro,  for 
Lorenzo's  wife  has  a  temper. 

They  do  look  so  unchanged  as  yet,  nearly  all 
of  them — so  genuinely  homely,  as  if  they  had 
landed  but  yesterday  ;  and  they  have  not  yet 
gone  through  the  transforming  process,  except  as 
Francesco,  the  chief  of  the  hurdy-gurdy  grinders, 
has  changed  one  or  two  tunes  of  his  repertoire  ; 
for  he  appeases  the  New  England  conscience  by 
playing  "  Nearer,  My  God  to  Thee,"  with  varia- 
tions, "Rock  of  Ages,"  closely  followed  by 
"  Tammany,"  and  airs  from  Cavaliero  Rusticana. 

If  the  Italian  in  Hartford  were  less  handicapped 
by  the  wretched  conditions  of  his  dwelling,  he 
would  more  easily  be  able  to  utilize  the  splendid 
advantages  of  that  city.  As  it  is,  he  rises  very 
slowly  but  perceptibly  ;  although  he  lives  in  the 
worst  possible  houses,  he  is  growing  more  and 
more  cleanly ;  he  is  gaining  in  self-respect  and 


268  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

when  he  has  had  the  opportunity  and  the  ex- 
perience of  the  Irish  people,  he  will  probably  not 
only  duplicate  their  splendid  record  in  New  Eng- 
land and  elsewhere,  but  excel  it.  Slowly  but 
surely  he  is  rising  from  a  tenement  dweller  to  a 
tenement  owner  and  soon  he  "  will  do  others  as 
he  was  done,"  and  charge  exorbitant  rent  for 
uninhabitable  quarters. 

The  Italian  is  regarded  as  a  good  asset  in  the 
real  estate  business,  for  he  can  be  crowded  more 
than  any  other  human  being.  He  is  fairly  prompt 
with  his  rent  and  he  does  not  make  heavy  de- 
mands in  the  way  of  improvements.  This  he 
himself  appreciates,  for  he  has  business  sense,  and 
buys  real  estate  as  soon  as  he  can  invest  his 
small  earnings.  Usually  he  acquires  a  small 
house  with  a  large  mortgage.  He  moves  into 
the  house  at  once,  proceeds  to  draw  revenue  from 
every  available  corner,  and  in  a  few  years  lifts 
the  mortgage  and  is  on  his  way  to  buy  more 
real  estate. 

The  value  of  the  business  is  proved  by  the  fact 
that  in  the  Italian  quarters  in  New  York  800 
Italians  are  owners  of  houses,  a  large  proportion 
of  course  being  tenements  of  the  worst  character, 
which  nevertheless,  represent  the  respectable 
value  of  $15,000,000.  A  like  large  sum  lies  in 
the  savings  banks  of  that  city,  deposited  by 
Italian  immigrants  ;  while  the  total  value  of  all 
the  property  owned  by  them  in  the  city  of  New 


THE  ITALIAN  IN  AMERICA        269 

York  alone,  is  not  far  from  $70,000,000.  These 
figures,  I  must  confess,  do  not  impress  me,  for 
the  sufferings  endured  and  meted  out  for  the 
sake  of  these  earnings  are  terrible,  and  in  the 
"tit  for  tat"  of  our  economic  order  the  Italian 
gives  as  good  as  he  gets.  The  narrow  quarters  he 
rents  are  invariably  sublet,  and  he  imposes  upon 
•the  newcomer  conditions  as  hard  as,  or  harder 
than,  those  under  which  he  began  life  in  the  land 
of  the  free.  The  hardest  conditions  are  those  he 
imposes  upon  his  wife  and  children  ;  yet  he  is 
not  a  cruel  husband  or  father,  and  shares  their 
hard  labour,  often  making  the  children  part 
owners  of  what  they  earn.  Of  course  the  west- 
ern and  southern  cities  where  the  Italians  have 
settled  make  a  better  showing,  for  they  are  not 
the  men  who  came  but  yesterday  ;  they  have  had 
a  larger  opportunity  and  have  made  full  use  of  it. 
Italian  clubs,  opera  houses,  and  Chambers  of 
Commerce,  are  being  organized  in  the  western 
and  southern  cities ;  and  one  can  judge  of  the 
quality  of  our  Italian  immigrant  best,  where  the 
struggle  for  life  is  not  too  keen,  the  surroundings 
not  so  terribly  depressing,  and  where  the  Ameri- 
can spirit  has  had  a  chance  to  be  grafted  upon 
the  Latin  stock.  More  and  more  he  is  leaving 
the  city  and  in  the  Southwest  especially,  colonies 
of  Italians  are  springing  up  and  are  conducted 
with  such  eminent  success,  that  with  some  en- 
couragement, the  Italian  may  be  made  helpful  in 


270  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

reclaiming  our  arid  deserts,  even  as  he  is  now 
making  the  rocky  hill  farms  of  Connecticut  and 
Massachusetts  to  "  blossom  as  the  rose." 

Among  these  settlements,  that  at  Bryan,  Texas, 
is  the  most  notable.  It  is  composed  of  what  we 
usually  call  the  least  desirable  Italian  element, 
the  Sicilian.  Nearly  twenty-five  hundred  people 
have  settled  there  as  renters,  although  not  a  few 
of  them  are  owners  of  the  land  they  work.  Some 
eighteen  miles  separate  the  various  families,  all 
of  whom  come  from  near  Palermo,  and  have  lived 
together  in  reasonable  harmony,  making  rapid 
financial  progress.  They  are  as  peaceful  a  com- 
munity as  is  found  in  so  turbulent  a  state  as 
Texas.  In  Utah  and  California  the  progress 
made  is  still  more  marked  ;  and  proves  that  the 
Italian  like  the  rest  of  us  needs  only  a  fair  chance. 

I  have  had  good  opportunity  also  to  observe 
him  in  his  migratory  state,  attached  to  a  con- 
struction crew  on  the  railroad,  and  tenting  by  a 
cut  in  the  rock,  or  by  the  western  fields. 

Usually  the  farmer  fears  his  coming.  The 
word  "  Dago  "  has  in  it  an  element  of  dread  ;  it 
carries  the  sound  of  the  dagger,  and  the  dyna- 
mite bomb.  The  far  away  villager  who  sees  the 
camp  approaching  fears  its  proximity.  I  have 
watched  the  Italians  coming  and  going  and 
although  there  was  a  heated  brawl  at  times,  they 
quarrelled  among  themselves,  disturbed  nobody, 
left  the  hen  coops  of  the  farmers  untouched,  did 


THE   BOSS 

Where  a  shovel  of  earth  is  to  be  turned,  or  a  bed  of  rock  is  to  be  blasted, 
there  the  Italian,  unattached,  migratory,  contributes  his  share  to  the  public 
welfare. 


THE  ITALIAN  IN  AMERICA        271 

not  burn  down  the  village,  and  paid  decently  for 
their  food.  When  they  went  away  a  fairly  good 
source  of  revenue  had  disappeared  and  with  it  a 
good  share  of  unreasoning  prejudice. 

As  competitors  in  certain  fields  of  activity  they 
are  justly  feared  by  those  who  have  regarded 
those  fields  as  their  own  peculiar  province  ;  and 
they  are  pushing  the  Russian  Jew  very  hard  in 
his  monopoly  of  the  manufacture  of  clothing. 
The  nimble  fingers  of  the  Italian  woman,  her 
lesser  demands  upon  life,  and  the  ease  with  which 
she  carries  the  burdens  of  wifehood  and  mother- 
hood, have  enabled  her  to  outdistance  the  work- 
ers of  the  Ghetto,  although  the  strife  is  still  on 
and  the  issue  not  decided.  Yet  I  believe  that  the 
future  clothing  worker  in  America  will  be  the 
Italian  and  not  the  Jew  ;  for  the  Jew  loves  life 
and  its  good  things,  and  moreover  he  has  edu- 
cational ambitions  for  his  children,  which  the 
Italian  does  not  yet  feel,  he  being  a  sinner  above 
all  others  in  the  use  of  his  children's  labour. 
The  Chicago  truant  officers  have  had  the  privi- 
lege of  arresting  nearly  all  the  parents  of  one 
"  Little  Italy  "  at  once  ;  for  almost  every  child  of 
school  age  was  kept  at  home  and  "  sweated  "  for 
all  the  strength  it  possessed. 

The  Italian  is  very  fertile  in  inventing  excuses 
for  the  purpose  of  evading  the  law,  and  his  ethical 
standard  in  that  direction  is  still  extremely  low. 
This  comes  from  his  inherited  hatred  of  all 


272  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

governmental  restrictions  ;  he  still  thinks  that  the 
state  seeks  only  its  own  good  and  his  hurt,  in  its 
insistence  upon  the  education  of  his  children. 
Substantially  this  is  the  Italian's  attitude  towards 
law  in  general ;  and  to  that  in  a  large  measure  is 
due  the  fact  that  he  rates  relatively  high  in  the 
statistics  of  crime. 

I  have  thus  far  refrained  from  using  statistics, 
largely  because  they  may  be  juggled  with,  as  has 
been  done  very  successfully ;  just  as  zealots  jug- 
gle with  Bible  texts  to  prove  their  contentions. 
I  have  done  something  besides  gathering  figures, 
and  that  something  may  be  of  importance.  I 
have  visited  nearly  all  the  penitentiaries  in  the 
eastern  and  western  States  ;  not  to  ask  how  many 
foreigners  there  are  in  jail,  but  to  ask  why  and 
how  they  were  convicted,  what  their  present  be- 
haviour is ;  to  look  the  men  and  women  squarely 
in  the  face  and  to  converse  with  them.  Let  me 
say  here  again,  emphatically,  that  statistics  are 
misleading  and  that  in  spite  of  the  large  number 
of  Italians  in  prison,  there  are  by  far  fewer 
criminals  among  them  than  the  statistics  indicate. 
In  a  large  number  of  cases,  the  crimes  for  which 
the  Italian  suffers,  have  grown  out  of  local  usage 
in  his  old  home.  None  the  less  are  they  justly 
punished  here,  lest  they  be  permitted  to  perpetu- 
ate themselves  in  the  new  home. 

Most  of  the  Italians  in  prison  have  used  the 
stiletto  and  the  pistol  too  freely,  just  as  they 


THE  ITALIAN  IN  AMERICA        273 

used  them  at  home  when  jealousy  made  them 
mad,  or  when  they  were  in  pursuit  of  vengeance 
for  real  or  fancied  wrongs.  There  are  not  a  few 
real  criminals  who  have  used  the  weapon  for 
gain,  but  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  stabbing  or 
shooting  was  an  affair  of  honour  with  those  con- 
cerned, and  even  the  aggrieved  parties  preferred 
to  suffer  in  silence  and  die,  bequeathing  their 
grudge  to  the  next  generation,  rather  than  bring 
the  affair  before  a  sordid  court.  Testimony  in 
such  cases  is  very  hard  to  get,  and  I  have  seen 
many  a  wounded  Italian  bite  his  lips,  inwardly 
groaning,  and  suffering  in  silence,  unwilling  to 
let  strange  ears  hear  the  proud  secret  of  which 
he  was  the  keeper  and  the  victim. 

Italian  burglars  have  not  reached  proficiency 
enough  to  have  a  place  in  the  "  Hall  of  Infamy," 
and  bank  robbers  and  "  hold-up  "  men  need  not 
yet  fear  serious  competition  from  that  source. 
The  prisons  contain  many  Italians  who  trans- 
gressed out  of  ignorance  as  well  as  from  passion  ; 
numbers  suffer  because  they  do  not  know  the 
language  of  the  court,  and  did  not  have  enough 
coin  of  the  realm. 

The  worst  thing  about  the  Italians  is  that  they 
have  no  sense  of  shame  or  remorse.  I  have  not 
yet  found  one  of  them  who  was  sorry  for  any- 
thing except  that  he  had  been  caught ;  and  in  his 
own  eyes  and  in  the  eyes  of  his  friends,  he  is 
"  unfortunate  "  when  he  is  in  prison  and  "  lucky  " 


274  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

when  he  comes  out.  "  He  no  bad  "  his  neigh- 
bour says :  "  He  good,  he  just  caught/'  and 
when  he  comes  out,  he  is  received  like  a  hero. 

This  is  the  severest  indictment  that  can  be 
brought  against  the  Italian,  and  it  is  severe 
enough ;  but  it  comes  largely  from  his  attitude 
towards  the  State  and  from  the  nature  of  the 
crime.  Lillian  Betts,  who  knows  her  foreigners 
critically  and  sympathetically,  says  : 

"  In  New  York,  the  streets  the  Italians  live  in 
are  the  most  neglected,  the  able  head  of  this  de- 
partment claiming  that  cleanliness  is  impossible 
where  the  Italian  lives.  The  truth  is  that  prep- 
aration for  cleanliness  in  our  foreign  colonies  is 
wholly  inadequate.  The  police  despise  the 
Italian  except  for  his  voting  power.  He  feels 
the  contempt  but  with  the  wisdom  of  his  race  he 
keeps  his  crimes  foreign,  and  defies  this  depart- 
ment more  successfully  than  the  public  gener- 
ally knows.  He  is  a  peaceable  citizen  in  spite  of 
the  peculiar  race  crimes  which  startle  the  public. 
The  criminals  are  as  one  to  a  thousand  of 
these  people.  On  Sundays  watch  these  colonies. 
The  streets  are  literally  crowded  from  house  line 
to  house  line,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  see,  but 
not  a  policeman  in  sight,  nor  occasion  for  one. 
Laughter,  song,  discussion,  exchange  of  epithet, 
but  no  disturbance.  They  mind  their  own 
business  as  no  other  nation,  and  carry  it  to  the 
point  of  crime  when  they  protect  their  own 


THE  ITALIAN  IN  AMERICA        275 

criminal.  Like  every  other  human  being  in  God's 
beautiful  world,  they  have  the  vices  of  their  vir- 
tues. It  is  for  us  to  learn  the  last  to  prevent  the 
first." 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  Italy  seems  to  be  the 
land  of  beggars,  the  Italian  immigrant  is  rarely  a 
medicant  and  (according  to  Jacob  Riis),  among 
the  street  beggars  of  New  York,  the  Irish  lead 
with  fifteen  per  cent.,  the  native  Americans 
follow  with  twelve,  the  Germans  with  eight, 
while  the  Italian  shows  but  two  per  cent.  In 
the  almshouses  of  New  York  the  Italian  oc- 
cupies the  enviable  position  of  having  the  small- 
est representation,  with  Ireland  having  1,617 
persons  and  Italy  but  nineteen  ;  while  the  figures 
for  the  United  States  are  equally  favourable. 

Considering  the  congested  conditions  of  the 
tenements,  the  Italian  retains  much  of  his  inher- 
ited vigour,  but  consumption  which  plays  havoc 
with  him  in  this  uncongenial  climate  is  aggra- 
vated by  his  mode  of  living  that  is  so  entirely 
changed.  Especially  do  the  women  and  children 
suffer,  for  they  are  suddenly  transferred  from  a 
complete  out-of-door  life  to  the  prison-like  walls 
of  the  tenements. 

In  Chicago  I  visited  a  family  in  which  I  had 
become  interested  through  a  son  who  was  in  con- 
stant antagonism  to  the  school  law  and  who  was 
the  special  pet  of  the  truant  officers.  When  I 
first  saw  these  people  they  occupied  two  rear 


276  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

rooms  in  which  the  mother  had  been  for  three 
months  without  once  going  out  of  doors.  She 
was  coughing  constantly  although  hard  at  work 
making  vests  ;  and  the  husband  could  not  un- 
derstand how  her  red  cheeks  could  so  soon  have 
disappeared,  or  why  her  colour  was  as  yellow  as 
the  light  of  the  coal  oil  lamp  by  which  she 
worked  ten  of  the  fourteen  working  hours  of  the 
day.  Thomasio,  the  son,  was  stunted  physically 
and  mentally,  and  the  mark  of  the  tenement  was 
upon  him.  He  was  the  oldest  of  eight  children 
and  had  borne  the  burden  of  his  seven  brothers 
and  sisters  as  if  it  were  his  own.  While  the 
other  boys  were  playing  on  the  sidewalk,  he  had 
to  rock  the  baby.  Through  seven  years  he  had 
rarely  seen  God's  out  of  doors,  except  as  it  shone 
upon  him  through  a  little  spot  in  the  air  shaft  of 
the  tenement.  He  and  his  parents  hated  the 
school  and  the  school  officers  who  were  after 
him,  and  that  c-a-t  spells  cat  will  be  as  much  as 
he  will  know  of  all  the  mysteries,  in  spite  of  the 
zealous  truant  officers  and  teachers,  lay  and  cler- 
ical. The  public  schools  will  be  unable  to  work 
their  magic  not  only  upon  Thomasio  and  his 
family  of  seven,  but  upon  numbers  of  the  same 
kind,  reared  under  the  same  circumstances,  for 
even  before  they  were  born  they  were  robbed  of 
their  mental  and  physical  background,  and  their 
horizon  will  always  be  bounded,  more  or  less,  by 
garbage  cans,  barrels  of  stale  beer,  wash-tubs 


THE  ITALIAN  IN  AMERICA        277 

full  of  soiled  clothing,  and  by  cradles  full  of  little 
bambinos. 

Nevertheless  the  Italian  is  not  a  degenerate  ; 
he  usually  survives  the  wretched  years  of  his  in- 
fancy and  then  like  all  people  who  share  his  en- 
vironment, grows  up  less  rugged,  perhaps  more 
subtle,  and  hardened  to  some  things  which  would 
prove  a  very  serious  handicap  to  those  of  us  who 
know  the  value  of  pure  air  and  of  soap  and 
water. 

It  would  seem  upon  a  superficial  glance  that 
the  large  incursion  of  Italians  to  America  would 
add  strength  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
here,  and  that  their  coming  into  a  community 
would  be  welcomed  because  of  that ;  but  I  have 
found  almost  the  opposite  to  be  true.  The  Irish 
priests  do  not  like  them  ;  they  lack  the  serious 
devotion  to  the  Church  which  characterizes  Irish 
or  German  parishioners,  they  care  only  for  the 
show  element  in  religion  and  are  not  willing  to 
pay  even  for  that.  They  will  come  to  church  on 
great  holidays,  when  many  candles  are  lighted 
and  banners  are  carried  ;  but  they  do  not  bother 
themselves  to  come  to  early  mass,  nor  are  they 
the  best  attendants  at  the  confessional.  They 
will  spend  much  money  upon  showy  funerals 
and  christenings,  but  if  the  Catholic  Church  were 
dependent  for  its  support  upon  the  Italian  immi- 
grants it  would  fare  badly.  This  of  course  may 
be  due  to  the  fact  that  they  are  very  poor  and 


278  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

that  in  Italy  the  Church  is  comparatively  rich  ; 
but  it  is  most  largely  due  to  the  fact  that,  con- 
trary to  the  common  opinion,  the  Italian  is  not 
religious  by  nature,  that  as  a  Rile  he  has  no  un- 
derstanding for  the  serious  and  ethical  side  of 
religion,  that  he  is  a  heathen  still  who  needs  to 
have  his  spiritual  nature  discovered  and  stirred, 
after  which  he  should  have  the  alphabet  of  the 
gospel  preached  to  him  in  the  simplest  possible 
way.  The  Italian  priest  in  America  is  the  poorest 
kind  of  vehicle  for  that  purpose  ;  in  proof  of 
which  I  quote  Lillian  W.  Betts  because  she  can- 
not be  accused  of  prejudice  in  the  light  of  the 
conclusions  which  she  draws : 

"  To  one  who  knows  and  appreciates  the  great 
spiritual  life  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the 
relation  between  that  Church  and  the  mass  of  the 
Italians  in  this  country  is  a  source  of  grief,  for  it 
does  not  hold  in  the  lives  of  this  people  the  place 
it  should.  Reluctantly,  the  writer  has  to  blame 
the  ignorance  and  bigotry  of  the  immigrant 
priests  who  set  themselves  against  American  in- 
fluence ;  men  who  too  often  lend  themselves  to 
the  purposes  of  the  ward  heeler,  the  district 
leader  in  controlling  the  people  ;  who  too  often 
keep  silence  when  the  poor  are  the  victims  of  the 
shrewd  Italians  who  have  grown  rich  on  the  ig- 
norance of  their  countrymen.  One  man  made 
eight  thousand  dollars  by  supplying  one  thou- 
sand labourers  to  a  railroad.  He  collected  five 


THE  ITALIAN  IN  AMERICA        279 

dollars  from  each  man  as  railroad  fare,  though 
transportation  was  given  by  the  road,  and  three 
dollars  from  each  man  for  the  material  to  build  a 
house.  The  men  supposed  it  was  to  be  a  home 
for  their  families.  They  found  as  a  home  the 
wretched  shelters  provided  by  contractors,  with 
which  we  are  all  familiar.  This  transaction, 
when  known,  did  not  disturb  the  church  or 
social  relations  of  the  offender,  but  it  increased 
his  political  power,  for  it  showed  what  he 
could  do.  He  is  recognized  to-day  as  the 

Mayor   of  Street ;   his   influence  is  met 

everywhere. 

"  The  claim  is  made  that  the  parochial  school 
has  the  advantage  that  it  gives  religious  as  well 
as  secular  instruction.  Observing  and  compar- 
ing the  children  living  under  the  same  environ- 
ment who  attended  the  public  and  parochial 
schools,  I  found  that  they  did  equally  good  work 
in  English,  but  that  the  public  schools  did  very 
much  better  work  in  arithmetic.  The  time 
given  in  the  public  schools  to  the  so-called  "  fads 
and  frills  "  was  apparently  given  in  the  parochial 
school  to  religious  exercises  and  instruction,  with 
about  an  equal  degree  of  comprehension  and  ap- 
plication on  the  part  of  the  pupils.  There  was  no 
difference  in  the  appreciation  of  truth,  honesty  or 
peace.  They  lied,  stole  and  fought  without 
showing  distinction  in  training.  The  singing 
voices  of  the  children  in  the  public  schools  were 


280  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

far  better  trained  than  the  voices  of  children  in 
the  parochial  schools. 

"  What  the  Italian  needs  in  New  York  above 
all  things  is  his  church  in  the  full  possession  of 
its  great  spiritual  power ;  young  men  born  in  this 
country,  imbued  with  a  love  of  and  appreciation 
of  its  great  opportunities,  trained  for  the  priest- 
hood, to  work  and  live  among  the  Italians ;  in 
the  interval  before  this  is  accomplished,  a  noviti- 
ate of  at  least  five  years  for  all  foreign-born  and 
trained  priests  before  they  are  put  in  charge  of 
an  American  parish ;  the  establishing  of  music 
schools  in  connection  with  all  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic churches  in  the  foreign  colonies ;  the  rapid 
disappearance  of  the  Italian  parish  because  the 
people  have  become  American.  Above  all,  the 
immediate  suppression  of  all  proselyting  among 
these  people.  Their  Church  is  in  their  blood. 
The  veneer,  which  is  all  the  new  church  connec- 
tion is,  stifles  the  vital  breath  of  the  soul,  and 
leaves  the  so-called  convert  without  a  Church. 
The  exceptions  prove  the  rule.  Remove  the 
temptation  of  the  loaves  and  fishes  in  this  pros- 
elyting endeavour  and  see  how  successful  the 
effort  is.  Let  the  Catholic  Church  in  America 
live  at  her  highest  among  these  people,  and  the 
political  problems  they  create  will  disappear." 

I  do  not  fully  agree  with  the  author  of  the 
above  ;  but  I  join  with  her  heartily  in  the  desire 
expressed  in  her  last  sentence.  I  would  also  add  : 


THE  ITALIAN  IN  AMERICA        281 

let  the  Protestant  Church  live  her  highest  be- 
fore these  people  ;  let  her  take  her  share  in  the 
responsibilities  which  these  strangers  bring,  with- 
out a  thought  of  proselyting  them  ;  and  she  will 
find  that  her  efforts  are  needed,  and  are  not  in 
vain. 


XIX 

WHERE  GREEK  MEETS  GREEK 

A  BAGGAGE  wagon  heavily  loaded  by  bags 
and  trunks,  and  half  lost  to  view  in  the  muddy 
street  and  against  the  muddier  sky  of  Chicago, 
stopped  in  front  of  the  saloon  to  the  Acropolis, 
on  Halstead  Street.  The  baggage  man  was  sur- 
rounded by  an  angry  mob,  for  he  demanded  four 
dollars  for  his  trip,  and  that,  the  unsuspecting  im- 
migrants were  unwilling  to  pay.  In  this  they 
were  supported  by  their  countrymen  who  had 
come  out  of  the  saloon  to  welcome  them  to  New 
Greece,  which  is  unpicturesquely  located  on  the 
West  side  of  Chicago,  between  dives  and  cheap 
restaurants  on  one  side,  and  the  busy  Ghetto  on 
the  other.  Men  of  all  nationalities,  if  of  no  oc- 
cupation, gathered  about  the  haggling  crowd,  and 
the  baggage  man  received  the  support  of  the  mob , 
for  he  wore  a  Union  button,  and  the  war  cry :  "  It's 
the  Union  price  "  was  the  Shibboleth  by  which 
the  Greeks  were  vanquished  and  made  to  pay 
the  four  dollars ;  not  of  course,  without  having 
spent  an  hour  in  their  national  pastime  of  hag- 
gling for  the  price. 

The  driver  mounted  his  quickly  emptied  wagon, 
with  a  curse  upon  the  "  Dagos,"  and  the  crowd 

282 


WHERE  GREEK  MEETS  GREEK    283 

informally  discussed  for  a  while  the  immigration 
question ;  its  verdict  being,  that  it  is  time  to  shut 
our  doors  against  the  Greeks,  for  they  are  a  poor 
lot  from  which  to  make  good  American  citizens. 

The  crowd  dispersed  as  quickly  as  it  came  and 
the  freshly  landed  Greeks  entered  the  gates  of 
the  "  Acropolis,"  a  Greek  saloon  and  restaurant 
combination,  not  unlike  (externally  at  least)  its 
American  prototype  on  the  same  street,  where  the 
saloon  is  decidedly  at  its  worst. 

The  newcomers  were  feasted  on  black  olives, 
brown  bread  and  goat's  cheese  ;  for  the  Greek  is 
very  loyal  to  the  national  appetite, — and  they 
immediately  begin  to  plan  their  entrance  into  the 
busy  life  of  America,  through  the  avenues  of  bar- 
ter or  of  labour. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  crowd 
which  knows  nothing  of  the  Greeks,  called  them 
"  Dagos,"  for  it  would  be  hard  even  for  one  who 
knows  them  only  from  the  classic  past,  properly 
to  place  this  group  of  men,  were  it  not  that 
their  speech  betrayed  the  ancient  heritage. 

We  never  picture  the  heroes  of  Greek  epics, 
undersized,  like  these  moderns  ;  round  headed, 
looking  into  the  world  out  of  small,  black,  pierc- 
ing eyes,  their  complexion  sallow  and  their  hair 
straight  and  black.  We  too,  would  place  them 
nearer  modern  Palermo  than  ancient  Athens,  and 
judge  their  blood  to  have  flowed  through  the 
veins  of  rough  Albanese  mountaineers  and  crude 


284  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

Slavic  plowmen,  rather  than  through  the  perfect 
bodies  of  those  Greeks  who  have  dissolved  with 
their  myths,  and  who  disappeared  when  Mt. 
Olympus  was  deserted  by  its  divine  tenantry. 

These  modern  Greeks  have  retained  much  of 
their  past,  stored  in  their  memories  at  least,  and 
scarcely  one  of  those  whom  I  have  met  but  knows 
the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey,  or  whose  black  eyes 
do  not  sparkle  proudly  when  he  recounts  the 
glory  of  those  Attic  days. 

They  are  still  eager  to  know,  even  more  eager 
to  tell  what  they  know,  and  a  brave  front  is  not 
the  least  part  of  the  equipment  of  the  modern 
Greek.  A  consuming  pride  which  amounts  to 
conceit,  shuts  his  eyes  to  his  own  faults  as  well 
as  to  the  virtues  of  other  races,  and  he  will  long 
hold  himself  aloof  from  the  hopper  which  grinds 
us  all  into  the  same  kind  of  grist. 

"  Where  do  these  men  come  from,  Mr.  B  ?  "  I 
asked  the  keeper  of  the  classic  bar  of  the 
"  Acropolis."  "  They  are  all  Athenians."  Every 
Greek  is,  although  cradled  in  some  island  unre- 
nowned  either  in  the  past  or  the  present.  "  Why 
do  they  come  to  Chicago?  To  make  money?" 
I  answer  my  own  question.  "  Oh,  no  ! "  replies 
the  classic  barkeeper,  delicately  ironical.  "  They 
are  not  poor,  no  Greek  is  ever  poor,  even  if  he 
cannot  buy  five  cents'  worth  of  black  olives." 
"  Do  they  come  here  because  they  have  a  better 
chance  ?  "  "  Chance  ?  why,  every  one  of  these 


WHERE  GREEK  MEETS  GREEK    285 

men  was  on  the  way  to  become  a  Demarch 
(Mayor).  They  have  come  here  to  learn  Ameri- 
can ways,  and  incidentally  to  enrich  American 
culture  by  their  presence." 

Full  of  this  pride  and  confidence  in  themselves, 
they  are  nevertheless  ready  to  blacken  our  boots 
for  ten  cents,  and  they  do  it  remarkably  well, 
displacing  negroes  and  Italians,  until  later,  they 
open  stores  and  sell  American  candies  to  an  un- 
discriminating  public,  hungry  for  the  cheap 
sweets.  No  labour  is  too  hard  for  them,  although 
they  prefer  to  stand  behind  the  counter.  More 
or  less,  all  the  Greeks  will  finally  be  in  trades  of 
some  kind,  and  monopolists  in  all  of  them.  At 
present,  their  eyes  are  on  bootblacking  and  con- 
fectionery stores,  nearly  every  town  of  any  size 
in  the  United  States  being  invaded  by  them,  so 
that  their  presence  is  beginning  to  be  felt. 

The  modern  Greek  still  has  the  license  of  the 
poet,  and  he  uses  the  license  whether  he  has  the 
poetry  or  not.  I  think  he  is  happiest  when  he 
exaggerates  to  no  one's  hurt ;  albeit,  like  the  rest 
of  us  he  does  not  always  stop  to  ask  whether  it 
hurts  or  not.  Conceit  and  deceit  are  as  close 
relatives  as  poetry  and  lying,  and  to  Greeks  and 
Americans  they  often  look  strangely  alike. 

If  the  modern  Greek  is  a  hero,  he  is  a  cautious 
one  and  recklessness  is  not  one  of  his  faults.  He 
is  no  "  Plunger,"  but  moves  along  the  "  straight 
and  narrow  way  which  leadeth  to " — a  big 


286  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

bank  account.  Contented  by  little,  he  does  not 
despise  the  much,  and  although  he  is  not  meek, 
he  will  inherit  a  fair  share  of  this  earth's  goods. 
Born  with  democratic  instincts,  he  soon  feels 
himself  as  good  as  anybody,  and  when  he  grows 
sleek  and  fat,  he  selects  "  the  chief  seat  in  the 
synagogue"  or  some  other  lofty  height,  from 
which  he  looks  in  disdain  upon  his  poorer 
brothers. 

While  hospitable,  he  has  become  strangely 
suspicious  of  strangers,  and  he  is  not  a  good  bed- 
fellow for  he  likes  to  occupy  the  whole  bed.  If 
it  is  a  settlement  which  opens  its  doors  to  him  it 
becomes  all  his,  and  he  does  not  shrink  from  in- 
timidation as  a  means  of  driving  the  Italian  or 
the  Jew  from  its  welcoming  gates. 

He  is  industrious  and  temperate,  yet  he  likes 
to  lounge  about  the  saloons  where  he  sometimes 
gets  too  much  of  his  native  wine  and  then  he 
can  be  a  really  bad  fellow. 

In  his  native  village  he  is  as  chaste  as  the 
women,  but  in  America  he  has  a  bad  name  and 
the  neighbourhood  in  which  he  lives  is  not  re- 
garded as  the  safest  for  unprotected  women. 
The  Chicago  police  especially,  has  an  eye  upon 
his  candy  stores  which  are  supposed  to  be  as  im- 
moral as  they  often  are  uninviting.  The  fact 
that  in  the  Chicago  colony,  10,000  Greeks  live, 
practically  without  their  wives,  explains  this  situ- 
ation, and  it  is  just  possible  that  10,000  Ameri- 


WHERE  GREEK  MEETS  GREEK    287 

cans  under  the  same  conditions  would  not  act 
differently. 

The  police  in  New  Greece  is  not  on  a  good 
footing  with  the  inhabitants,  and  occasionally 
shooting  and  stabbing  occur.  At  such  times  it 
is  difficult  to  know  who  is  more  to  blame ;  the 
police  or  the  supposed  culprits. 
'  The  modern  Greek  is  still  punctiliously  pious, 
his  church  and  priest  follow  him  into  every  settle- 
ment, and  he  is  loyal  to  the  forms  of  his  religion. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  here  or  in  the  Old  World, 
it  discloses  to  him  the  ethical  teachings  of  Jesus ; 
but  in  this,  we  are  in  a  poor  condition  to  "  cast 
the  first  stone  "  at  him.  His  priest  is  not  servilely 
revered  or  feared,  and  the  relation  between  them 
is  too  often  that  of  buyer  and  seller.  The  priest 
has  the  means  of  grace,  the  Greek  is  in  need  of 
them  for  salvation,  and  he  pays  for  what  he 
gets, — sometimes  reluctantly. 

At  present  it  would  fare  ill  with  any  one  who 
would  try  to  wean  him  from  his  Church  ;  for 
loyalty  to  it  is  loyalty  to  Greece,  and  the  Greek 
has  never  been  a  turn-coat. 

No  more  patriotic  people  ever  came  to  us  than 
these  modern  Greeks,  and  although  that  patriot- 
ism is  centred  upon  their  native  country,  they 
will  ultimately  make  good  citizens,  and  even  be- 
fore that  day,  make  splendid  politicians  ;  for  in 
the  craft  of  politics  every  Greek  is  an  adept,  and 
he  is  a  "  Mighty  (place)  hunter  before  the  Lord." 


288  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

The  only  trouble  with  the  government  of 
modern  Greece  is,  that  it  has  not  enough  offices 
for  all  the  aspirants  for  them,  and  this  learned 
proletariat  is  a  fair  sized  menace  in  this  little 
country.  In  governing  themselves  the  modern 
Greeks  have  not  been  a  conspicuous  success,  and 
the  only  things  we  can  teach  them  in  this  line 
are,  the  willingness  to  acknowledge  failure  and 
the  eagerness  with  which  we  seek  the  better  way. 

The  New  Greece  of  Chicago,  a  few  blocks  in 
a  busy  thoroughfare,  is  not  a  large  world,  yet  it 
is  more  Greek  than  the  Ghetto  is  Russian  or 
Little  Sicily  is  Italian.  Homes  in  the  true  sense 
there  are  but  few,  because  the  women  have  not  yet 
come ;  the  housing  conditions  of  the  Greeks  are 
bad  and  likely  to  remain  so  for  a  long  time.  There 
are  grocery  stores  containing  little  or  no  American 
food ;  saloons,  by  far  too  many,  but  providing 
food  and  drink  at  the  same  time  as  is  the  custom 
in  Greece ;  a  Greek  bank,  the  front  windows  of 
which  are  covered  by  the  advertisements  of 
steamship  transportation  companies;  clothing 
and  dry-goods  stores,  whose  proprietors  are 
Greeks,  although  their  stock  in  trade  is  necessarily 
American ;  and  the  Greek  church  with  a  double 
cross  to  mark  its  orthodoxy; — this  is  New 
Greece. 

Out  of  it  some  of  our  newly  arrived  immi- 
grants will  go  in  the  morning,  to  the  railroad 
tracks,  to  do  the  digging  and  the  ditching.  They 


WHERE  GREEK  MEETS  GREEK    289 

will  be  "  bossed  "  by  "  Big  Pete,"  whose  size  is 
exceeded  only  by  the  length  of  his  oaths,  and 
who  boasts  of  being  able  to  handle  his  country- 
men easily,  because :  "  The  Greeks  can  be  handled 
only  by  a  man  who  can  show  them  that  he  is  a 
better  man,  and  that  I  am  ;  and  if  you  don't  be- 
lieve it,  feel  my  muscle.  I  pay  them  $1.50  a  day 
and  I  treat  them  like  Greeks.' ' 

I  watched  "  Big  Pete"  treat  them  like  Greeks 
for  half  a  day,  and  I  did  not  discover  that  such 
treatment  saved  a  man  from  being  geared  to  the 
highest  notch  and  made  to  work  incessantly, 
while  "  Big  Pete  "  watched  and  cursed  to  help 
the  pace. 

The  same  night  that  they  arrived,  some  of  the 
young  boys  were  looked  over  by  the  men  of  the 
Greek  colony,  who  had  assisted  them  to  come, 
and  whose  labour  was  theirs  until  the  passage 
money  was  paid,  and  paid  with  interest.  The 
next  morning  they  began  their  tutelage  in  black- 
ing boots  in  so-called  parlours,  whose  walls  are 
covered  by  chromos  depicting  Greek  wars  in 
which  the  Greeks  are  always  the  victors  and  the 
Turks  are  slaughtered  like  sheep  at  the  stock- 
yards ;  there  are  also  one  or  two  pictures  of 
classic  ruins. 

In  such  surroundings,  and  seemingly  uncon- 
scious of  the  life  about  them,  these  boys  will 
blacken  boots  for  eighteen  hours  a  day,  with 
heart,  mind  and  soul  in  Greece ;  and  their  fingers 


290  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

in  America  only  when  they  handle  our  coin. 
They  will  attempt  no  conversation,  even  after 
they  know  our  speech,  literally  obeying  the 
Scriptural  injunction  to  say  "  Yea,  yea  and  nay, 
nay/'  and  not  much  else  if  they  can  help  it. 
They  are  not  nearly  so  communicative  as  the 
Italians,  and  although  a  smile  sits  well  on  a  Greek 
face,  I  have  rarely  seen  one  there. 

The  confectionery  stores  which  are  outside  of 
New  Greece,  are  open  all  the  time,  at  least  so 
long  as  a  customer  may  be  expected,  and 
although  these  customers  are  nearly  all  Ameri- 
cans, the  Greeks  have  few  friends  among  them. 
They  all  return  to  New  Greece  as  often  as  pos- 
sible, and  there  their  virtues  unfold,  and  "  their 
soul  delights  itself  in  fatness."  They  are  not  ex- 
ceeded even  by  the  Chinese  in  that  loyalty  to 
native  food  which  I  call  the  patriotism  of  the 
stomach,  and  a  Greek  grocery  store  is  filled 
from  one  end  to  the  other  with  food  from  the 
classic  isles.  There  are  dried  vegetables  whose 
present  form  does  not  betray  their  natural  shape, 
but  which  taste  luscious,  because  the  flavour  of 
the  native  soil  clings  to  them ;  fish,  dried,  pickled 
and  preserved  in  some  form,  and  cheese  made 
from  the  milk  of  goats  whose  horns  butted  broken 
classic  vases  instead  of  modern  tin  cans. 

The  smells  seem  ancient,  too  ;  but  in  these  the 
Greek  revels,  and  here  he  is  at  home. 

New  Greece  in  Chicago  is  fortunate  in  having 


WHERE  GREEK  MEETS  GREEK   291 

as  one  of  its  boundaries,  Hull  House,  one  of  the 
numerous  activities  of  which  consists  in  trying  to 
discover  the  possible  point  of  contact  between  the 
home-born  and  the  stranger. 

A  Greek  play  given  at  Hull  House  opened  the 
eyes  of  many  American  people  to  the  fact  that 
the  past  is  alive  in  the  modern  Greek,  and  at  a 
banquet,  also  at  Hull  House,  where  Americans 
and  Greeks  vied  with  each  other  in  extolling  the 
glory  of  Athens,  the  wealth  of  the  past  was  again 
richly  displayed.  How  near  the  American  and 
the  Greek  have  come  to  each  other  through 
these  two  notable  events,  it  is  difficult  to  tell ; 
but  I  am  sure  that  they  have  increased  the  pride 
of  the  Greeks,  and  have  given  us  an  added  re- 
spect for  them. 

But  after  all,  they  will  be  judged  by  the  way 
they  live  to-day  and  by  the  measure  in  which 
these  small,  dark-haired  traders  and  workers 
exemplify  in  their  lives  the  virtues  of  those  men 
of  old,  whose  names  they  have  inherited  and 
whose  fame  they  are  eager  to  preserve. 


XX 

THE  NEW  AMERICAN  AND  THE  NEW  PROBLEM 

THE  miracle  of  assimilation  wrought  upon  the 
older  type  of  immigration,  gives  to  many  of  us, 
at  least  the  hope,  that  the  Slavs,  Jews,  Italians, 
Hungarians  and  Greeks  will  blend  into  our  life  as 
easily  as  did  the  Germans,  the  Scandinavians  and 
the  Irish. 

The  new  immigrant,  or  the  new  American,  as 
I  call  him,  is  however  in  many  respects,  more  of 
an  alien  than  that  older  class  which  was  related 
to  the  native  stock  by  race,  speech,  or  religious 
ties.  Therefore,  I  recognize  the  fact  that  it  is 
easy  to  be  too  optimistic  about  this  assimilation, 
and  to  regard  the  Americanizing  of  the  stranger 
accomplished,  when  he  discards  his  picturesque 
native  garb  and  speech,  to  disappear  in  the  com- 
monplaceness  of  our  attire ;  or  when  he  has  mas- 
tered the  intricacies  of  American  idioms. 

Outwardly  the  changes  will  be  the  same  as 
those  which  have  taken  place  among  the  older 
immigrants,  accomplished  with  the  same  dis- 
patch, even  where  the  foreigners  are  segregated 
in  their  own  quarters.  I  have  in  mind  a  Polish 
colony  of  some  six  thousand  souls  in  a  New  Eng- 
land town  where  there  are  Polish  churches, 

292 


THE  NEW  PROBLEM  293 

Polish  schools,  Polish  "  butchers,  bakers,  and 
candlestick-makers "  ;  and  yet  if  you  walk 
through  that  section  of  the  city  you  will  see  the 
women  who  a  few  years  ago,  when  they  landed, 
wore  the  numberless  short  skirts  and  picturesque 
waists  of  their  own  making,  now  sweeping  the 
dust  with  long  trailing  skirts,  their  ample  forms 
encased  in  corsets  and  shirt-waists ;  while  here 
and  there  you  will  hear  even  the  rustle  of  the 
silk  lining. 

The  boys  who  upon  landing  wore  coarse  linen 
trousers  and  shirts  have  long  ago  rebelled 
against  these  marks  of  their  Old  Country  lineage, 
and  their  fathers  have  bought  them  the  short 
trousers  and  shirt-waists,  which  make  them  look 
like  young  Americans. 

If  you  are  careful  to  observe,  you  will  see  that 
the  children  wear  stockings  and  underwear  ; 
luxuries  undreamed  of  in  the  Old  World,  where 
boots  and  shoes  were  the  signs  of  manhood  or 
womanhood,  and  where  stockings  were  unknown 
to  the  peasantry,  being  the  marks  of  a  high  call- 
ing and  fine  breeding. 

Especially  on  Sunday  that  quarter  of  the  town 
looks  resplendent  in  its  newness,  and  the  latest 
American  fashions  are  reflected  by  the  women 
who  are  never  a  season  behind  in  expanding  or 
reducing  to  proper  proportions,  their  sleeves, 
which  they  wear  short  or  long,  very  nearly  as 
the  ladies  do,  who  at  that  moment  have  entered 


294  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

the  portals  of  the  great  meeting  house,  the  bul- 
wark of  American  ideals  in  New  England.  It  is 
true  that  they  all  still  eat  black  bread,  drink 
vodka,  and  say  :  "  Pshas  creff  "  when  angry  ; 
but  in  eating,  drinking  and  swearing,  the  whole 
colony  is  on  the  way  to  complete  Americaniza- 
tion, and  one  need  have  no  fear  that  externally 
the  Slav,  Italian  and  Jew  will  not  "  eat  of  the 
fruit  of  the  tree  of  the  garden  and  become  like 
one  of  us." 

The  same  thing  is  a  fact  in  the  matter  of  ex- 
ternal racial  characteristics.  The  things  which 
seem  to  us  the  most  ineradicable  and  written  as 
if  by  an  "  iron  pen  upon  the  rock  "  are  in  most 
cases  but  chalk  marks  on  a  blackboard,  so  easily 
are  they  washed  away. 

These  things  created  by  long  ages  of  neglect, 
hunger,  persecution  and  climate,  are  often  lost 
within  one  generation.  The  crowd  on  Rivington 
Street  in  New  York  looks  less  Jewish  than  that 
in  Warsaw,  and  the  Bohemians  in  Chicago  look 
so  like  "  us,"  that  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  I  have 
some  training  in  detecting  racial  marks,  I  am 
often  puzzled  and  mistaken. 

Give  me  the  immigrant  on  board  of  ship,  and 
I  will  distinguish  without  hesitation  the  Bulga- 
rian from  the  Servian,  the  Slovak  from  the  Rus- 
sian, and  the  Northern  Italian  from  the  Sicilian  ; 
but  as  I  have  said,  I  often  have  the  greatest  dif- 
ficulty in  accomplishing  such  a  feat,  two  or  three 


THE  NEW  PROBLEM  295 

years  after  the  men  have  landed.  It  is  true  that 
in  the  first  generation,  the  old  racial  marks  still 
lie  in  the  foreground,  and  that  even  in  the  second 
generation,  the  blood  will  speak  out  here  and 
there  ;  but  it  will  require  a  very  sharp  scrutiny  to 
detect  this,  and  in  the  most  cases  there  will  be 
no  hint  of  the  past. 

.  In  Chicago,  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  St.  Louis  and 
St.  Paul  I  have  addressed  audiences  composed  of 
Slavs  and  of  native  Americans ;  and  I  have 
vainly  tried  to  distinguish  them  one  from  the 
other  in  the  mass,  although  of  course  when  I  had 
a  very  close  and  long  look,  I  could  make  my 
differentiation.  These  racial  marks  are  most 
tenacious  among  certain  Orientals  where  strange 
strains  of  blood  have  accentuated  the  difference ; 
but  I  have  seen  some  Armenians,  people  bearing 
the  mark  of  their  race  most  strongly,  who  after 
ten  years  of  life  in  America,  had  lost  the  peculiar 
sharpness  of  their  features  and  were  in  that  stage 
of  transition  where  the  American  image  was 
being  imprinted  upon  them. 

Scarcely  a  foreigner  returns  home  after  a  long 
sojourn  in  America  without  hearing  at  every 
step  that  he  looks  different.  The  Jew  on  board 
of  ship,  to  whom  I  have  previously  referred,  who 
was  warned  not  to  wear  an  American  flag  be- 
cause it  might  cost  him  money  in  Europe,  was 
right  when  he  said  :  "  They  will  see  it  in  mine 
face  that  I  am  from  America." 


296  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  as  dogmatic  in  my  asser- 
tions as  Mr.  Prescott  F.  Hall,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Restriction  Immigration  League  is  in  his. 
He  believes  that  we  shall  be  the  inheritors  of  all 
the  disagreeable  racial  characteristics  which  the 
immigrant  brings  with  him.  It  is  still  too  early 
to  foretell ;  the  new  American  has  not  been  long 
enough  with  us,  and  moreover  the  whole  ques- 
tion of  racial  characteristics  is  still  an  open  one. 

Nevertheless  in  face  of  the  undisputed  fact 
that  these  outward  racial  marks  disappear,  may 
we  not  also  believe  that  with  them  go  the  pecul- 
iar racial  qualities  which  mark  and  mar  the  life 
of  the  stranger  ? 

Mr.  Hall  has  many  figures  with  which  to  prove 
his  side  of  the  case  ;  I  have  but  a  few  facts  gath- 
ered from  rather  intimate  association  with  cer- 
tain groups  of  foreigners. 

Take  for  instance  the  Polish  peasant.  It  is  a 
fact  that  in  the  Old  World  he  is  known  for  his 
inability  to  distinguish  between  "  mine  and  thine," 
and  between  truth  and  falsehood.  The  Polish 
proverb  says  :  "  The  peasant  will  steal  anything 
except  millstones  and  hot  iron,"  and  I  know  of 
instances  where  the  only  thing  untrue  about  the 
saying  was  the  last  saving  clause.  In  this  coun- 
try I  have  been  in  nearly  every  one  of  the  Polish 
communities  and  neither  thieving  nor  lying  is  laid 
to  their  charge.  The  little  town  of  Marblehead, 
Ohio,  located  in  a  peninsula  in  Lake  Erie  is  peo- 


THE  NEW  PROBLEM  297 

pled  largely  by  Poles  and  Slovaks  who  find  em- 
ployment in  the  large  stone  quarries.  Around 
them  are  prosperous  farms,  large  orchards  and 
vineyards.  I  took  pains  to  inquire  especially 
what  was  the  attitude  of  these  Slavs  towards  stock, 
chickens,  and  fruit  which  did  not  belong  to  them  ; 
and  not  one  of  the  neighbouring  farmers  com- 
plained of  having  had  anything  stolen  from  his 
premises,  although  these  Slavs  have  lived  in  that 
neighbourhood  nearly  twenty  years. 

In  the  Old  World  pigs  had  to  be  locked  in 
their  sties ;  they  were  not  safe  even  after  they 
were  butchered.  Grain  disappeared,  even  when 
it  was  vigilantly  guarded  from  the  time  it  was  a 
blade  of  grass  until  it  was  in  the  barn.  The 
Polish  and  Slovak  peasants  were  thievish  in  the 
Old  Country  because  they  were  hungry,  and 
their  wage  was  not  sufficient  to  buy  enough 
bread.  In  Marblehead  they  have  bread  enough 
and  to  spare,  as  well  as  meat  and  fruit  for  little 
money — they  do  not  have  to  steal. 

In  the  Old  World  they  lied  and  stole  because 
they  were  driven  by  necessity.  When  a  Polish 
regiment  came  to  any  town  in  Austria,  women 
had  to  be  especially  guarded  against  their  lust ; 
but  no  such  charge  has  been  brought  against  the 
regiments  of  young  labourers  who  have  come  to 
American  cities,  and  who  are  everywhere  re- 
garded as  chaste  as  their  American  brothers.  In 
the  matter  of  intemperance  they  have  so  far  re- 


298  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

mained  as  bad  as  their  reputation  ;  but  the  aver- 
age mining  camp  is  rarely  in  a  Prohibition  dis- 
trict and  the  example  set  by  the  Americans  they 
meet  is  not  conducive  to  sobriety. 

The  Jew  is  certainly  distinctive  ;  his  faith  and 
fate  alike  have  guarded  his  racial  qualities ;  yet 
he  must  be  blind  indeed,  who  does  not  see  a  vast 
change  going  on,  within  as  well  as  without.  The 
Jew  is  still  a  sharp  bargainer,  but  in  that  peculi- 
arity the  Yankee  is  giving  him  "  pointers,"  and 
he  will  have  to  grow  sharper  still  if  he  wishes  to 
keep  up  in  the  race.  His  business  talent  is  likely 
to  increase  because  he  is  in  a  business  atmos- 
phere ;  but  his  business  methods  will  change  and 
have  changed,  because  his  inner  being  is  under- 
going a  transformation.  Subtle  as  these  changes 
are  I  have  traced  them  and  can  detect  them  even 
in  the  crowd  which  is  a  far  different  mass  from 
that  of  the  Jews  of  Europe,  a  fact  which  recently 
I  saw  very  clearly  illustrated. 

It  was  the  Jewish  anniversary  of  the  death  of 
the  great  Zionist  leader,  Theodore  Hertzl.  In 
front  of  the  Grand  Opera  House  in  Hartford, 
Conn.,  were  large  Yiddish  placards  announcing 
the  fact,  and  all  the  evening  crowds  of  men, 
women  and  children  passed  into  the  building  fill- 
ing every  available  space  on  floor  and  in  galleries. 
The  dignitaries  of  Hartford's  Jewry  sat  in  the 
boxes,  and  young  men  and  women  passed  through 
the  crowd,  securing  members  for  the  various 


THE  NEW  PROBLEM  299 

Jewish  societies.  It  was  an  orderly  assembly, 
more  orderly  than  any  synagogue  meeting  I  ever 
attended  in  Russia.  America  had  toned  them 
down,  they  were  less  excited,  although  even  here 
a  policeman  had  quite  a  hard  task  in  disposing 
of  one  man  who  insisted  upon  entering,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  he  had  lost  his  ticket. 

These  people  had  learned  the  first  lesson  in 
self-government — self-control ;  or  rather,  they 
were  in  the  way  of  learning  it.  They  still  swayed 
to  and  fro  with  the  movement  of  the  speaker,  a 
habit  acquired  in  the  Talmud  schools  and  prac- 
ticed at  their  worship  ;  but  one  could  see  the 
younger  element  holding  the  older  in  check,  and 
the  older  keeping  itself  in  check  for  the  sake  of 
its  children  who  had  learned  American  ways. 
There  was  an  indescribable  gain  in  their  looks,  in 
those  faces  where  greed,  suffering  and  brutal 
hate  had  left  their  deep  traces. 

It  was  a  look  of  hope  akin  to  joy,  some  such 
triumphant  gladness  as  the  Jew  would  feel  if  the 
portals  of  his  New  Jerusalem  were  to  open  again 
to  the  King  of  Glory.  My  own  heart  throbbed 
gladly  when  I  beheld  them  for  I  saw  the  gain 
they  had  made  in  manhood  and  womanhood. 

The  program  was  also  a  hopeful  thing.  It  was 
long  enough  for  the  meeting  of  one  of  our  learned 
societies  and  the  men  had  the  habit  of  stealing 
one  another's  text  and  time ;  but  whether  they 
were  apt  learners  or  had  imported  the  habit  I  do 


300  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

not  know.  The  first  address  was  by  the  mayor 
of  the  city  and  he  was  greeted  like  a  friend  and 
spoke  like  one.  It  was  not  the  flattering  speech 
of  a  politician  but  a  scholarly,  sympathetic 
address,  of  one  who  knew  Israel's  past  and  who 
sympathized  with  her  aspirations.  He  knew  all 
about  the  Zionist  movement  and  about  Dr. 
Hertzl  and  spoke  as  one  who  was  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  his  subject.  After  he  had  finished 
speaking  the  chairman  said,  "  Whenever  I  hear 
a  Christian  speak  of  Israel  as  this  man  has  spoken, 
I  feel  like  saying,  *  Almost  thou  persuadest  me  to 
be  a  Christian. '  " 

On  the  whole  it  may  be  said  that  these  new 
Americans  are  in  that  stage  of  cultural  develop- 
ment or  undevelopment,  which  makes  it  probable 
that  so  strong  and  virile  a  people  as  that  among 
whom  their  lot  is  cast,  will  impress  them  so  for- 
cibly, that  those  things  which  we  call  racial 
characteristics  will  after  a  while  disappear. 

Whether  we  shall  enrich  this  New  American  by 
our  own  ideals,  whether  we  shall  implant  in  him 
the  broad  culture  of  our  own  spiritual  and  in- 
tellectual heritage,  is  a  real  problem  whose  solv- 
ing may  puzzle  even  future  generations. 

I  do  not  believe  that  any  of  the  people  who 
come  to  us,  speaking  of  races  and  nationalities  as 
a  whole,  are  degenerate,  or  so  hardened  that 
they  are  not  capable  of  assimilation  and  trans- 
formation. Although  as  I  have  saidr  this  cannot 


THE  NEW  PROBLEM  301 

yet  be  proved  by  our  own  experience,  we  can 
reason  with  some  assurance  from  the  experience  of 
countries  in  which  these  strangers  who  come  to 
us  are  also  regarded  as  aliens  and  subjects  ;  and 
where  their  way  upward  is  retarded  rather  than 
helped  as  it  is  on  this  side  of  the  great  sea. 

Let  me  take  as  an  example  the  Slovak,  one  of 
the  crudest  Slavic  types,  who  bears  all  the  marks 
of  the  Slav  in  his  features  and  in  all  his  inner 
being.  In  his  own  home  he  belonged  to  a  sub- 
ject race  ;  for  the  Magyar  being  more  powerful 
and  more  warlike,  was  his  ruler.  In  the  villages 
where  this  Slovak  lives  he  has  been  in  touch 
with  the  Magyar  and  also  with  the  Germanic 
element,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree.  I  have 
noticed  this:  That  wherever  he  has  had  a 
chance,  wherever  political  and  economic  difficul- 
ties were  not  too  great,  he  grew  into  the  full 
stature  of  the  man  above  him ;  and  in  the  long 
struggle  for  racial  supremacy  in  Hungary,  the 
Slav  has  not  yet  said  the  last  word.  Physically, 
morally  and  spiritually,  he  equals  the  Magyar  or 
the  German  ;  that  is,  wherever  the  opportunity  is 
not  taken  from  him  by  wrong  economic  and 
political  adjustment. 

I  hold  no  brief  for  the  Slovak  or  for  any  Slav  ; 
there  are  many  things  in  his  nature  which  are  re- 
pellent. He  is  too  much  of  a  realist  by  nature 
for  my  taste,  and  there  is  a  certain  kind  of  crude- 
ness  and  cruelty  in  his  make  up,  from  both  of 


302  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

which  I  have  had  occasion  to  suffer.  Yet  in  spite 
of  these  handicaps  I  believe  that,  given  the 
proper  environment  and  the  proper  example,  or  if 
you  please  the  proper  masters,  he  will  develop 
into  that  kind  of  American  which  we,  the  average, 
are.  He  usually  takes  more  than  he  leaves  be- 
hind ;  he  inherits  more  than  he  bequeaths  ;  he  is 
human  material  in  the  rough  ;  very,  very  rough 
but  human  material  nevertheless.  Made  of  as 
good  clay  as  any  of  us,  although  perhaps  not  yet 
fashioned  into  the  best  mould.  The  moulding 
will  be  the  problem ;  for  the  New  American  is 
more  Slavic  than  anything  else. 

The  Jews,  a  subject  race  everywhere,  have 
suffered  so  much  from  friends  and  foes  alike,  that 
to  defend  or  accuse  them  would  be  a  work  of 
supererogation.  It  is,  however,  undeniably  true, 
that  Judaism  in  America  faces  a  greater  crisis 
than  it  faced  in  the  captivity  of  Babylon.  There 
Judaism  was  made,  here  it  is  being  unmade ; 
there  foes  tried  to  make  the  Jews  forget 
Jerusalem,  here  their  friends  have  difficulty  in 
making  them  remember  it ;  there  a  hope  of  the 
Messiah  grew  up  within  them,  here  the  term  is 
so  strange  to  them  that  it  needs  reiteration  and 
interpretation.  The  loss  to  Judaism  in  America 
amounts  to  a  catastrophe,  and  from  the  present 
outlook  its  complete  dissolution  is  merely  a  mat- 
ter of  time,  only  retarded  by  the  constant  influx 
of  immigrants  from  Russia  and  Poland.  The 


A  SLAV  OP  THE  BALKANS 

Sometimes  crude,  often  very  rough  human  material.     To  mould  him  is  the 
problem,  a  problem  too,  not  so  difficult  as  many  think. 


THE  NEW  PROBLEM  303 

average  Jew  in  America  has  become  so  American 
that  he  does  not  remember  the  hole  from  which 
he  was  dug,  or  that  Abraham  was  his  father  and 
that  Sarah  bore  him. 

A  certain  vague  racial  fealty  holds  one  Jew  to 
the  other  ;  but  a  strong  and  mighty  passion  holds 
him  to  America,  making  him  so  much  an  Ameri- 
can and  so  little  a  Jew.  It  may  be  true  that  the 
leopard  does  not  change  his  spots  ;  but  even  the 
leopard  may  lose  his  spots  when  he  does  not 
need  them.  Many  of  the  racial  marks  of  Jew 
and  Gentile  alike  will  disappear  when  the  need 
of  them  passes  away;  and  they  will  take  on 
readily  other  marks  which  fit  them  for  a  better 
environment. 

The  problem  with  the  Jew  is  not  how  to  make 
him  less  a  Jew ;  but  how  to  make  him  a  better 
Jew,  and  consequently  a  better  American  ;  for 
Judaism  properly  interpreted  has  in  it  all  the 
elements  to  make  of  men  good  citizens,  good 
neighbours  and  good  friends. 

At  the  conclusion  of  a  lecture  recently,  a  rather 
stupid  but  zealous  man  asked  me  regarding  the 
Jews.  "Can  we  trust  them  with  the  Constitu- 
tion ? "  It  was  a  stupid  question  asked  by  a 
stupid  man.  God  trusted  them  with  the  oracles, 
the  Commandments  and  the  prophecies ;  the 
richest  spiritual  gifts  in  the  keeping  of  the  Deity. 
To  be  sure,  they  broke  nearly  all  the  Command- 
ments and  killed  their  prophets ;  but  we  have 


304  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

done  the  same  thing  ;  and  the  Constitution  is  as 
safe  in  the  hands  of  the  Jew,  as  the  Bible  is  in 
the  hands  of  the  Gentile. 

Granting  that  each  one  of  these  races  will  be- 
queath us  something  evil,  let  us  take  the  stand- 
point of  the  secretary  of  the  Immigration  Re- 
striction League  and  see  to  what  we  shall  fall 
heir.  We  shall  get  from  the  Slav  his  crudity, 
from  the  Jew  his  sharpness,  from  the  Italian  his 
mobility,  from  the  Armenian  his  Oriental  shrewd- 
ness, which  is  akin  to  lying,  from  the  Magyar  a 
fiery  temper  ;  from  each  of  them  something  which 
we  call  ill.  When  these  disagreeable  qualities 
are  properly  proportioned  and  balanced,  they 
may  so  counteract  one  another,  that  in  the  sum 
total  we  may  after  all  be  the  gainers.  It  seems 
absurd  to  go  about  this  matter  mathematically, 
whether  one  traces  the  possible  gain  or  loss. 

The  truth  is,  that  up  to  this  date,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  already  Slav,  Jewish  and  Italian  blood 
flows  in  the  veins  of  some  of  us  :  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  these  people  fill  the  cities  almost  to 
overflowing,  there  is  no  perceptible  physical  or 
moral  degeneration  visible  which  can  be  traced 
to  the  foreigner. 

The  quarters  of  American  cities  where  the 
foreigners  live  are  not  the  worst  quarters  ;  and  I 
would  rather  trust  myself  in  the  dark,  to  the 
mysteries  of  Hester  Street  than  to  certain  por- 
tions of  the  West  side  exclusively  populated  by 


THE  NEW  PROBLEM  305 

a  certain  type  of  degenerate  Americans.  Re- 
cently a  professor  of  economics  in  one  of  our 
universities  asked  me  to  show  him  those  terrible 
parts  of  New  York  where  the  foreigners  live ; 
where  the  children  are  said  to  be  so  unhappy, 
the  men  so  oppressed  by  poverty ;  and  where 
the  women  have  not  enough  to  wear.  I  took 
him  across  the  Bowery,  which  has  lost  its  terrors 
since  it  became  foreign  territory,  across  the 
streets  of  the  Ghetto  and  along  its  avenues.  We 
found  the  supposed  unhappy  children,  well 
dressed  and  well  fed,  dancing  to  the  notes  of  the 
hurdy-gurdy  grinder,  as  happy  as  children 
naturally  are,  who  do  not  have  many  "  manners 
to  mind,"  whose  playground  is  the  street,  and 
who  have  music  from  morning  till  nightfall. 
We  walked  through  endless  rows  of  tenements 
and  saw  men  engaged  in  lawful  pursuits ;  from 
the  garret  to  the  cellars  the  Ghetto  was  a  bee- 
hive of  industry.  We  saw  no  street  loafers, 
drunkards  or  idlers.  In  "  Little  Hungary," 
where  we  ate  and  enjoyed  a  daintily  served 
dinner,  we  loitered  until  evening,  when  we  met 
a  vast  army  of  men  and  women  who  came 
pouring  in  from  Broadway's  stores  and  shops, 
walking  with  that  pride  and  happiness  which 
comes  from  the  consciousness  of  having  done  a 
day's  work,  and  done  it  well.  My  friend  was 
very  much  disappointed  because  he  saw  no  hor- 
rors, no  unhappy  children  or  unhappy  men. 


306  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

Again  we  passed  the  Bowery,  going  on  to  the 
American  section  of  New  York,  the  Rialto. 
Here  were  horrors  enough  ;  whole  blocks  where 
there  were  no  children  ;  for  both  the  very  wicked 
and  the  very  rich  are  not  blessed  by  them. 
Young  and  old  men,  fashionably  dressed  and 
properly  tipsy,  went  in  to  cheap  shows,  saloons 
and  brothels,  to  have  a  "  good  time."  These 
young  men,  rich  sons  of  rich  fathers,  and  these 
old  men,  are  idlers  and  perverters  of  their  own 
passions.  They  and  they  alone  are  the  great 
problem  which  we  have  need  to  fear  ;  for  it  is  a 
problem  which  cannot  be  solved.  In  the  fash- 
ionable restaurants  of  Fifth  Avenue  and  Upper 
Broadway,  we  saw  the  women  "  who  toil  not 
neither  do  they  spin,"  and  who,  with  all  the 
Heavenly  Father's  care,  were  not  properly 
clothed.  They  too,  more  than  the  women  of  the 
Ghetto,  are  the  problem  we  need  to  study  ;  for 
among  them  and  by  them  are  lost  our  democ- 
racy, our  purity  and  our  virtue. 

I  fear  more  from  a  certain  type  of  Jew  on  Up- 
per Broadway,  than  I  do  from  the  Jew  of  the 
Ghetto  ;  even  as  I  fear  more  from  a  certain  type 
of  over-ripe  Americans  than  I  do  from  this  unde- 
veloped peasantry.  The  question  which  the 
American  faces  is  not  whether  the  foreigner  can 
be  assimilated,  but  who  will  do  the  assimilating. 
Not  even  the  question  whether  the  foreigner  is 
the  inferior  need  concern  us  ;  for  in  the  race 


THE  NEW  PROBLEM  307 

which  is  now  on  and  at  its  height,  the  American 
just  described  is  left  behind  ;  and  those  of  us 
who  are  watching  the  race  are  not  at  all  amazed. 

In  nearly  all  the  manufacturing  towns  of  New 
England,  the  Swede  and  the  German  are  forging 
to  the  front,  while  the  Pole  and  the  Italian  are 
following  closely  ;  but  the  sons  of  the  shrewd  and 
inventive  Yankees  are  keeping  fast  company, 
riding  in  fast  automobiles,  and  drinking  strong 
cocktails.  They  will  soon  be  in  the  rear  because 
of  physical,  mental  and  spiritual  bankruptcy. 

It  does  not  follow  that  these  New  Americans 
do  not  present  a  racial  problem  ;  but  the  problem 
is  largely  one  of  assimilating  power  on  our  part. 
The  real  problem  is :  Whether  the  American  is 
virile  enough  and  not  so  much  whether  the  for- 
eign material  is  of  the  proper  quality.  I  have 
no  doubt  as  to  either  proposition  ;  I  believe  that 
there  is  still  remarkable  assimilating  power  left 
which  increases  rather  than  decreases  with  the 
mixture  of  blood.  I  also  believe  that  the  average 
New  American  is  like  wax,  hard  wax  sometimes, 
— perhaps  more  like  lead  or  steel ;  but  he  will  be 
moulded  into  our  image  and  bear  the  marks  of 
our  characteristics  whatever  they  may  be. 

As  I  write  this  I  realize  that  I  am  saying  "  us  " 
and  "  our"  as  if  I  were  not  a  New  American  myself 
and  one  of  those  who  make  up  the  racial  prob- 
lem. Yet  when  I  recall  to  myself  the  fact  that  I 
too  belong  to  an  alien  race,  it  comes  to  me  like 


308  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

a  shock  ;  when  I  realize  that  I  was  born  beneath 
another  flag  and  that  this  is  but  my  adopted 
country,  it  gives  me  almost  a  sense  of  shame 
that  I  have  in  a  great  degree,  if  not  altogether, 
forgotten  these  facts,  and  I  am  so  completely  and 
absorbingly  an  American,  that  I  can  write  "  us  " 
and  "  our,"  speak  of  my  own  people  as  foreign- 
ers, and  of  my  own  native  country  as  a  strange 
land.  Something  has  so  wrought  upon  me  that 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  I  came  to  this  country  in 
my  young  manhood,  I  look  upon  America  as  my 
Fatherland.  That  same  power  is  still  active ; 
still  strong  enough  to  repeat  the  miracle  of  the 
yesterday  ;  for  I  am  no  better  than  these  millions 
who  are  regarded  as  a  menace.  I  came  here 
with  the  same  blood  as  theirs  and  the  same  heri- 
tage of  good  or  ill,  bequeathed  by  my  race ;  yet 
I  feel  myself  completely  one  with  all  which  this 
country  possesses,  that  is  worth  living  for  and 
dying  for.  With  millions  of  these  New  Amer- 
icans I  say  to-day  that  which  we  shall  continue 
to  say,  whether  it  fares  well  or  ill  with  our 
adopted  country :  "  Thy  people  shall  be  my  peo- 
ple, and  thy  God  my  God." 


XXI 

THE  NEW  AMERICAN  AND  OLD  PROBLEMS 

"  COMPETITION  is  the  life  of  prejudice  "  is  an 
old  truth,  in  a  somewhat  new  setting.  Back  of 
the  prejudice  against  Jew,  Italian  and  Slav,  is 
this  fact :  they  are  monopolizing  certain  depart- 
ments of  labour  and  trades,  and  in  nearly  every 
activity  they  are  beginning  to  be  felt  in  competi- 
tion. The  Swede  is  regarded  as  treacherous  by 
the  man  whose  place  he  has  taken  in  the  machine 
shops  East  and  West ;  the  Slovak  and  Pole  are 
called  dirty  and  unreliable  by  the  miners  whom 
they  have  supplanted  in  Pennsylvania,  and  the 
Jew  is  accused  of  trickery  by  the  American  who 
has  a  clothing  store  on  the  next  corner.  Under 
whatever  name  the  feeling  against  the  foreigner 
hides  itself,  it  usually  is  in  substance  the  fear  of 
competition  ;  and  every  law  restricting  immigra- 
tion has  been  with  the  idea  of  protecting  Ameri- 
can labour. 

Nevertheless  the  economic  problem  presented 
by  the  New  American  is  ill-defined,  largely 
formulated  by  conflicting  business  interests,  and 
is  still  only  a  question  of  the  labour  market.  As 
a  rule  it  may  be  said  that  the  immigrant  is  will- 
ing to  work  only  for  the  standard  rate  of  wage ; 

3°9 


310  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

and  whether  that  rate  has  been  lowered  by  the 
recent  influx  of  immigrants  remains  an  un- 
decided question.  There  are  as  reliable  figures 
to  prove  that  it  has  increased,  as  that  it  has  de- 
creased. The  reports  and  resolutions  of  Labour 
Unions  are  coloured  by  self-interest  as  much  as 
are  the  reports  of  Manufacturers'  Associations. 

It  is  an  undisputed  fact  that  the  New  England 
loom  workers  have  been  largely  displaced  by  the 
Irish  and  by  French  Canadians  ;  and  that  Greeks, 
Armenians  and  Syrians  are  now  displacing  these 
in  turn.  The  native  New  Englander  however 
has  not  suffered  by  the  process ;  for  the  foreman, 
the  forewoman  and  the  man  who  invents  the 
loom  and  makes  it,  are  these  New  En  glanders,  who 
do  something  more  and  better  than  merely  keep 
the  spindles  full.  It  is  true  that  the  Irishman  no 
longer  has  the  supremacy  on  railroad  sections, 
and  that  he  has  been  supplanted ;  but  not  even 
by  the  wildest  imagination  can  we  say  that  this 
Irishman  has  suffered  in  the  process ;  for  is  he 
not  now  policeman,  fireman,  alderman  or  some' 
other  kind  of  man  where  formerly  he  was  only  a 
hand  on  a  section  ? 

A  similar  change  has  taken  place  in  all 
channels  of  activity  ;  whether  this  is  for  good  or 
ill,  I  am  not  ready  to  say.  While  no  doubt 
exists  in  any  mind  that  there  are  foreigners  who 
are  willing  to  work  for  less  than  the  standard 
wage,  it  is  because  they  do  not  yet  know  what 


OLD  PROBLEMS  311 

that  standard  is  ;  or  because  the  immediate  need 
drives  them  to  take  work  at  any  price.  Those 
of  us  who  are  acquainted  with  the  immigrant  as 
a  labourer  are  aware  that  very  soon  he  knows 
enough  to  demand  his  full  wage,  and  that, 
smarting  under  a  real  or  fancied  wrong  he  will 
"  strike  "  as  quickly  as  if  he  had  had  twenty-five 
years  of  training  in  a  Labour  Union. 

The  history  of  the  labour  troubles  of  the  last 
fifteen  years  proves  conclusively  that  the 
foreigner  will  strike ;  and  that  he  knows  how  to 
use  the  weapons  of  the  strike,  such  as  picketing 
and  slugging  and  all  that  goes  with  that  form  of 
industrial  warfare.  It  is  at  such  a  time  that  he 
is  most  denounced  for  his  pernicious  activity ; 
while  the  very  Labour  Union  with  which  he  has 
made  a  common  cause,  will  then  repudiate  him 
as  a  "  scab  "  and  a  menace. 

The  author  who,  in  his  book,1  which  is  sup- 
posed to  be  an  authentic  source  of  information 
on  immigration,  quoted  the  following,  surely 
must  have  done  so  against  his  better  judgment : 
"The  agent2  stated  also  that  the  rising  genera- 
tion of  Jews,  Italians  and  Hungarians  are  likely  to 
live  for  the  most  part  in  the  same  conditions  as 
their  parents,  and  to  remain  unskilled  labourers." 
This  is  so  evidently  untrue  that  it  must  be  known 


1 "  Immigration,"  p.  128,  Prescott  F.  Hall. 

8  The  special  agent  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture, 


312  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

to  be  false  by  any  man,  even  although  he  has 
examined  this  subject  very  superficially.  The 
standard  of  living  rises  very  perceptibly  in  the 
first  generation  among  all  classes  of  immigrants  ; 
and  in  proof  of  that  I  have  the  testimony  of 
merchants  in  nearly  all  industrial  centres  in  the 
United  States.  The  boy  who  landed  in  Penn- 
sylvania in  homespun  will  discard  it  within  a 
week  and  demand  of  his  father  short  trousers  and 
shirt  waists.  He  will  get  them  too ;  and  he  will 
get  the  best  the  father  can  afford.  The  wife  will 
soon  grow  weary  of  keeping  twenty  boarders  in 
one  room ;  and  I  have  seen  the  dawn  of  liberty 
rise  upon  her  face  as  with  flushing  cheek  she  told 
her  husband  :  "  Me  boss  of  this  shanty."  When 
he  tried  to  strike  her  as  he  did  in  the  Old  World 
she  would  remind  him  of  the  fact  that  this  is  the 
land  of  liberty,  and  I  have  seen  her  lift  the  battle- 
axe  in  defiance.  Axe  in  hand  she  said  :  "I 
won't  keep  boarders,"  and  the  husband  has  been 
long  enough  in  this  country  to  know  that  when  a 
woman  in  America  says :  "  I  won't,"  she  won't ; 
and  the  boarders  go. 

With  the  going  of  the  boarders  comes  the  de- 
mand for  a  carpet ;  a  cheap  cotton  carpet  with 
huge  design  of  many  colours,  the  same  kind  that 
our  forefathers  put  upon  their  floors  when  rag 
carpets  went  out  of  fashion  ;  not  very  beautiful ; 
but  thoroughly  and  primitively  American. 

Plush    furniture  is  added  and  stands   stiffly 


OLD  PROBLEMS  313 

against  the  wall ;  not  very  useful,  but  somewhat 
like  the  article  which  stands  in  more  pretentious 
parlours.  The  "  installment  plan "  agent  finds 
among  these  people  willing  victims  to  plush 
albums,  sewing  machines  and  crayon  portraits. 
Scarcely  any  of  the  New  Americans  I  know  are 
miserly  or  have  essentially  a  different  standard  of 
living  from  our  own,  except  as  that  standard  was 
forced  upon  them  by  economic  conditions.  All 
of  them  in  common  with  our  frail  humanity  will 
spend  money  in  proportion  to  their  income  and 
often,  too  often,  out  of  proportion.  The  Slovak 
and  the  Pole  who  are  most  complained  about  on 
this  score  of  a  low  standard  of  living,  are  fond  of 
fine  clothes  and  good  food.  In  their  native  village 
they  go  about  resplendent  in  glorious  apparel, 
usually  twice  the  value  of  ours  ;  though  we  affect 
a  higher  standard  of  living.  There  are  Slovak 
girls  in  Pennsylvania  now,  who  have  spent  a 
year's  wage  on  a  dress  in  the  old  country ;  and  I 
have  known  women  living  in  wretched  huts  who 
paid  ten  dollars  for  the  half  yard  of  lace  on  their 
caps.  Mother  vanity  has  her  devotees  every- 
where and  she  exacts  her  tribute  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic  as  well  as  on  the  other. 

Those  who  know  the  immigrant  and  care  for 
his  well  being,  are  not  concerned  by  the  fact  that 
he  does  not  spend  money,  but  that  he  does  not 
spend  it  wisely  ;  —  that  the  girls  of  the  first  and 
second  generations  follow  the  fashions  too  quickly, 


3i4  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

and  buy  the  things  which  are  useless  ;  even  as 
their  mothers  will  fill  the  homes  with  things 
which  are  neither  comfortable  nor  beautiful.  The 
Jews  who  are  such  a  great  economic  factor  in  our 
life  may  be  accused  of  everything  with  more  show 
of  justice  than  of  this  one  thing ;  namely,  that, 
viewed  from  this  standpoint,  their  standard  of  liv- 
ing is  low.  They  are  proverbially  good  dressers  ; 
and  good  eating  is  part  of  their  traditions ;  it  is 
closely  allied  to  their  religion.  If  it  were  not  for 
the  Jews  in  New  York  and  in  Chicago,  the  thea- 
tres would  be  half  empty  and  the  music  halls  not 
less  so  ;  one  of  the  stock  complaints  against  the 
Jews  of  our  large  cities  is  that  they  want  the  best 
seats  in  these  places,  that  they  want  to  go  to  the 
best  hotels  and  live  in  the  finest  residence 
sections.  To  get  along  in  the  world,  to  get  up  and 
out,  to  be  "  as  good  as  the  best,"  is  a  passion  in 
Israel ;  a  passion  which  has  made  the  Jew  more 
enemies  than  he  himself  knows. 

I  cannot  regard  the  immigrant  as  a  problem 
from  this  narrow  economic  view :  while  upon  the 
broader  question,  of  the  general  effect  he  has 
upon  the  condition  of  labour  in  America,  I  am 
at  present  in  no  position  to  be  dogmatic.  I 
recognize  that  it  is  natural  for  those  engaged  in 
the  same  pursuit  to  fear  the  competition  which 
will  lower  their  wage  and  consequently  narrow 
their  whole  life.  I  believe  that  it  is  the  business 
of  the  government  to  protect  them  against  unjust 


OLD  PROBLEMS  315 

competition,  but  first  we  must  have  tangible 
facts  ;  and  those  we  do  not  yet  possess. 

Let  me  quote  again,  almost  verbatim,  a  labour 
leader  from  Ohio,  who  lifted  up  his  voice  in  the 
Immigration  Congress  which  convened  in  Madi- 
son Square  Garden,  New  York,  on  December  6, 
1905.  He  said  :  "  We  don't  want  you  fellers  to 
let  in  any  more  of  them  yellow  crawling  worms 
from  Europe  ;  we  have  them  in  Ohio.  They  live 
on  a  piece  of  bread  and  one  beer,  and  we  can't 
live  like  a  decent  American  ought  to  live.'1  I 
happen  to  know  Ohio  and  the  city  from  which 
this  gentleman  comes.  I  do  not  know  a  single 
foreign  colony  there,  in  which  men  are  satisfied 
by  a  piece  of  bread  and  one  beer.  Those  I  know 
fix  no  limit  as  to  the  beer ;  and  the  vats  of  the 
Cincinnati  brewers  would  be  dry,  were  it  not  for 
the  proverbial  thirst  of  the  foreigners  who  live  on 
the  classic  shores  of  the  "  Rhine," — as  a  certain 
muddy  stream  is  called  which  manages  to  flow 
into  the  Ohio  by  way  of  Cincinnati.  The  discern- 
ment (?)  of  this  man  and  of  his  kind  is  not  enough 
to  raise  a  false  alarm.  Any  of  us  would  bow  be- 
fore facts,  presented  by  an  unprejudiced  observer 
and  would  gladly  help  to  cry  "  Halt "  to  the  in- 
vasion of  strangers  who  would  lower  the  standard 
of  living  in  America. 

It  takes  neither  figures  nor  close  investigation 
to  discover  that  in  spite  of  the  constant  inflow  of 
foreigners,  the  standard  of  living  is  rising  con- 


316  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

tinually ;  that  the  luxuries  of  yesterday  are  the 
comforts  and  necessities  of  to-day ;  and  that  in  a 
larger  measure  than  ever,  it  is  true  that  the 
masses,  if  they  have  not  reached  this  plane,  are 
constantly  at  work  trying  to  reach  it.  To  blame 
the  immigrant  for  the  slums  and  the  sweat-shops 
rests  also  upon  pure  assumption.  It  is  indis- 
putably true  that  the  "  slum  "  was  always  more 
or  less  here  and  that  it  is  found  wherever  poverty 
and  vice  have  met  each  other. 

The  immigrant  moves  into  wretched  houses 
and  narrow  streets  and  alleys  because  they  are 
here.  American  citizens  draw  revenue  from 
death  traps  and  do  it  without  a  twinge  of  con- 
science ;  but  even  then  these  places  are  not  slums. 
I  venture  to  assert  that  in  the  real  slums  of 
American  cities,  the  native  Americans,  using  the 
word  native  in  its  true  sense,  outnumber  these 
foreigners  with  whom  we  always  associate  the 
slums,  with  their  grim  twins — Poverty  and  Vice. 

Only  degenerate  people  sink  into  slums  ;  and 
these  foreigners  have  helped  to  regenerate  them. 
In  Chicago  the  first  Ghetto  developed  in  a  quar- 
ter which  could  truly  be  called  slums  ;  full  of 
dives  in  which  the  foulest  vice  flourished. 
Nearly  all  the  women  in  those  dens,  and  there 
must  have  been  hundreds  of  them,  were  native 
Americans,  or  came  from  what  we  call  the  better 
immigrant  stock,  Germans  and  Scandinavians. 
On  one  side  of  this  Ghetto  was  the  most  con- 


OLD  PROBLEMS  317 

gested  railroad  district  in  the  United  States  ;  on 
the  other  side  as  foul  a  slum  as  ever  disgraced 
any  city  ;  but  the  Jew  did  not  sink  into  the  mire. 
He  lifted  that  district  out  of  it,  so  that  to-day  it 
is  practically  empty  of  that  kind  of  vice. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  in  the  last  few  years, 
the  army  of  unfortunate  women  and  gamblers 
has  received  recruits  from  among  recent  immi- 
grants, and  there  is  also  no  doubt  that  the  num- 
ber will  still  increase  ;  but  the  stock,  the  root,  the 
peculiar  kind  of  decayed  house  and  people  which 
we  call  slum,  is  a  native  product.  Most  of  the 
Slavs  who  come  here  do  not  know  anything 
about  the  business  of  prostitution  or  gambling ; 
and  until  a  few  years  ago  this  was  true  among 
the  Jews  also.  I  am  willing  to  assert  that  the 
people  who  are  making  these  peculiar  crimes 
their  business,  are  ninety  per  cent,  native  Amer-  j 
icans.  This  does  not  necessarily  cast  any  asper- 
sion upon  the  American  people  ;  for  I  can  truth- 
fully say  that  as  a  whole  their  standard  of 
morality  is  higher  than  that  of  any  other  people 
J  know.  Yet  it  is  true  that  the  class  of  immi- 
grants who  come,  peasants  and  labourers,  do  not 
import  the  slum,  the  brothel  and  the  gambling 
house. 

If  I  were  sent  out  to-day  to  find  the  people 
best  fitted  to  replenish  our  physical  stock,  to 
help  in  winning  the  wealth  of  forest  and  mine,  I 
should  not  go  to  Paris,  to  Vienna,  to  Berlin  and 


3i8  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

London ;  or  even  to  Glasgow  or  Edinburgh.  I 
should  go  to  the  very  villages  in  the  Carpathians 
and  Alps,  on  the  broad  Danubian  plains,  from 
which  our  recent  immigration  comes.  Whether 
we  are  in  need  of  replenishing  this  stock,  whether 
the  wealth  of  forest  and  mines  should  be  har- 
vested as  quickly  as  it  is  now,  is  another  ques- 
tion of  those  many  with  which  I  cannot  deal 
here.  Taking  conditions  as  I  see  them,  granting 
that  we  need  muscle  and  brawn,  I  can  say  very 
dogmatically  that  we  are  getting  exactly  what 
we  need.  The  sweat-shop  it  is  true  flourishes 
because  of  this  recent  immigration  ;  but  grad- 
ually its  domain  is  losing  ground  and  the  fight- 
ers at  the  front  against  both  slums  and  sweat- 
shops are  the  New  Americans,  who  are  helping 
to  solve  some  old  problems  and  to  heal  some  old 
diseases. 

The  claim  that  every  able  bodied  foreigner 
who  comes  here  is  worth  so  many  dollars  to  this 
country  has  been  ridiculed.  Count  Aponyi,  of 
Hungary,  who  claims  that  his  country  loses 
money  by  the  withdrawal  of  this  able  bodied 
army  of  men  and  women,  puts  the  height  of 
our  gain  at  five  thousand  dollars  for  every  man. 
However  that  may  be,  this  is  true  :  immigration 
has  had  a  direct  economic  influence  upon  the 
countries  from  which  the  immigrants  come,  an 
influence  which  is  both  for  good  and  bad.  In  cer- 
tain regions  wages  have  increased  nearly  fifty  per 


OLD  PROBLEMS  319 

cent.  The  relation  between  servant  and  master 
has  changed,  and  a  note  of  independence  rings 
from  the  guttural  throats  of  Slovaks  and  Poles  ; 
while  "  strike  "  and  "  meeting  "  are  two  English 
words  which  have  entered  permanently  into  their 
vocabularies.  The  removal  of  so  many  able  bodied 
men  has  left  whole  villages  with  but  women  and 
children ;  and  while  the  moral  tone  of  such  re- 
gions has  not  improved,  one  cannot  as  yet  per- 
ceive any  economic  loss.  This  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  money  comes  pouring  in  which  offsets  the 
loss  sustained  by  the  removal  of  so  large  a  popu- 
lation. 

Nevertheless  it  is  a  fact  that  the  governments 
of  Europe  most  concerned  still  regard  themselves 
as  losers,  and  are  taking  steps  to  restrict  the 
emigration  of  desirable  classes. 

It  has  been  claimed  by  a  certain  member  of 
congress,  that  the  withdrawal  of  this  money 
from  America  is  an  economic  loss  and  that  the 
American  people  should  stop  it;  because  the 
money  goes  to  support  foreign  governments. 
The  argument  is  both  narrow  and  false.  First 
of  all  it  is  true,  that  the  immigrant  has  earned 
this  money  in  the  most  honest  way,  and  that 
consequently  he  has  a  right  to  send  it  home  if 
he  pleases  to  do  so. 

Secondly,  this  money  no  more  goes  for  the  sup- 
port of  foreign  governments  than  does  the  money 
that  the  politician  paid  for  the  imported  cloth 


320  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

of  which  the  evening  suit  was  made  which  he 
wore  when  he  delivered  that  criticism. 

Thirdly,  the  money  sent  home  each  year  by 
the  men  who  have  earned  it,  is  only  a  small  frac- 
tion of  the  large  sums  which  are  spent  annually 
by  Americans  abroad  ;  money  which  in  a  great 
number  of  cases  has  not  been  earned  by  those 
who  spent  it,  or  has  not  been  earned  so  honestly 
as  it  has  been  by  those  "  hewers  of  wood." 

Fourth,  the  money  which  is  spent  by  Amer- 
icans in  Paris,  Dresden,  Nice  and  Carlsbad,  does 
not  so  immediately  return  to  the  United  States 
as  does  the  money  which  is  spent  in  Kottowin 
or  Breczowa  or  in  Oswicczim.  That  flows  into 
the  trade  channels  whose  golden  stream  runs  di- 
rectly back  to  the  United  States  ;  for  more  money 
in  those  villages  means  more  money  for  South- 
ern cotton,  Chicago  lard,  and  Connecticut  clocks 
and  sewing  machines. 

I  doubt  that  even  the  minutest  investigation 
will  prove  that  the  money  sent  annually  to  Italy 
or  Hungary  means  a  loss  to  the  United  States, 
or  that  as  yet  the  immigrant  is  a  serious  eco- 
nomic menace. 


XXII 

RELIGION  AND  POLITICS 

ON  a  recent  trip  through  Germany  there  fell 
into  my  hands  a  little  book  about  America  which 
bears  the  modest  title,  "  Americana."  It  was 
written  by  Professor  Karl  Lamprecht  of  the 
University  of  Leipzig,  and  is  a  note-book  in 
which  he  records  his  impressions  about  us.  Be- 
ing a  Professor  of  History  and  especially  con- 
versant with  that  part  of  it  which  deals  with  our 
country,  his  conclusions  have  large  value. 

That  which  impressed  him  most  about  our  life 
was  the  prevalence  of  the  religious  atmosphere 
and  the  genuineness  of  our  piety.  The  sentence 
which  seemed  to  me  to  stand  out  above  every 
other  which  he  has  written  is  this :  "  My  con- 
viction that  this  people  is  destined  to  great 
things  bases  itself  above  all  else  upon  the  fact, 
that  it  is  capable  of  religious  impressions."  I 
have  felt  this  by  virtue  of  a  sort  of  vague  faith, 
and  have  always  regarded  the  religious  problem 
which  the  immigrant  presents,  as  the  crucial  one. 
We  shall  soon  be  of  one  blood — sooner  yet  of 
one  speech  ;  but  how  soon  we  shall  have  one 
faith,  and  common  religious  ideals,  or  how  long 
we  shall  be  able  to  preserve  those  religious  ideals 

321 


322  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

which  are  the  guarantee  of  our  greatness,  as 
well  as  of  our  permanence  as  a  republic,  are  very 
large  and  very  serious  questions. 

It  is  not  easy  to  deny  that  certain  phases  of 
our  religious  life  in  America  are  to  a  great  degree 
unknown  in  Southern  and  Eastern  Europe,  and 
cannot  be  readily  understood  by  the  average 
immigrant : — the  entire  separation  of  Church  and 
State,  yet  the  complete  union  of  religion  and 
national  life  ;  the  large  place  of  the  individual 
as  a  religious  functionary,  and  yet  the  absolute 
equality  of  priest  and  people  ;  the  prevalence  of 
forms  and  the  permanence  of  the  ethical  and 
spiritual. 

The  immigrant  comes  to  us,  largely  from 
countries  in  which  the  Church  and  the  State,  the 
cross  and  the  sword,  are  one.  In  fact  to  the 
large  majority  of  those  who  come,  nationality  or 
race,  and  the  Church,  are  one  and  the  same. 
The  Russian  and  the  Southern  Slav  who  are  not 
pravo  Slavs,  adherents  of  the  Greek  Church,  are 
regarded  very  much  in  the  light  of  traitors  to 
their  nations.  The  Pole  is  a  Catholic  by  national 
instinct ;  Poland  and  Roman  Catholicism  are  to 
him  one  and  the  same ;  while  the  Jew  is  a  Jew 
by  race  and  faith,  regarding  as  a  profligate,  him 
who  betrays  his  people  by  becoming  a  Christian. 

Roughly  speaking,  nearly  eighty  per  cent,  of 
our  present  immigration  is  made  up  of  Roman 
Catholics,  Greek  Catholics,  Greek  Orthodox  and 


RELIGION  AND  POLITICS        323 

Jews.  More  or  less,  usually  more  rather  than 
less,  they  bring  with  them  and  foster  these  ideas. 
This  is  undoubtedly  true  of  nearly  all  the  Slavs 
whom  the  Church  divides  racially  and  who  are 
enemies  ;  remaining  so  a  long  time  on  this  side 
of  the  Atlantic.  The  Church,  cognizant  of  this 
fact,  fosters  it  in  no  small  degree,  because  it  can 
hold  its  children  more  loyally  to  itself  by  giving 
the  national  idea  a  large  place.  Polish,  Bohemian 
and  Slovak  church  societies  of  a  semi-military 
character  exist  in  large  numbers,  and  many  of 
their  members  carry  arms.  Although  in  itself 
this  may  be  a  harmless  way  of  keeping  men 
loyal  to  the  Church,  it  does  seem  to  clash  with 
one  of  our  religious  ideals,  which  is  fundamental 
in  maintaining  religious  liberty.  I  am  judging 
only  as  an  outsider  and  am  telling  only  what 
seems  to  me  to  be  the  case ;  but  I  am  speaking 
also  for  a  large  number  of  Catholic  priests  who 
see  in  this  no  small  menace  and  who  have  tacitly 
admitted  it. 

The  sooner  the  Catholic  Church  can  get  rid  of 
Polish  and  Italian  priests  who  have  been  trained 
in  Europe,  to  whom  religion  is  a  sort  of  politics, 
— and  a  certain  kind  of  politics  is  religion, — the 
better  for  the  Church  and  of  course  the  better  for 
the  State. 

The  immigrants  free  themselves  from  the 
autocracy  of  the  Church  and  of  the  priest  more 
quickly  than  from  the  national  idea,  and  they 


324  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

easily  breathe  in  the  liberating  atmosphere  and 
sometimes  manifest  it  in  a  very  disagreeable 
way.  The  close  supervision  which  the  priest  ex- 
ercises over  his  parishioners,  the  respect  they 
pay  to  him,  the  awe  in  which  he  is  held,  are 
helpful  rather  than  detrimental  phases  of  their 
religious  life,  where  the  priest  is  a  true  priest. 
There  are,  however,  too  many  who  are  not,  and 
I  am  sure  that  the  authorities  of  the  Church  con- 
cerned are  perhaps  more  anxious  about  this  than 
are  we,  who  are  simply  looking  over  the  fence  at 
our  neighbours'  affairs. 

I  am  more  concerned  by  the  fact  that  in  nearly 
all  the  immigrants  with  whom  I  have  dealt,  forms 
and  a  certain  blind  faith,  obscure  the  ethical  de- 
mands of  Christianity.  This  is  certainly  true  of 
the  adherents  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church  and 
not  entirely  untrue  of  those  belonging  to  other 
Churches.  I  am  conscious  of  the  fact  that  just 
here  prejudice  can  blind  one  completely ;  and  I 
want  to  keep  myself  free  from  that  charge. 

My  religious  outlook  cannot  be  called  nar- 
row, when  one  takes  into  consideration  that 
Roman  Catholic  priests  were  both  my  teachers 
and  my  companions,  that  I  have  lived  in 
a  Russian  monastery,  that  I  know  the  Slav, 
the  Italian  and  the  Jew  better  perhaps  than  I 
know  the  American,  and  that  to  know  them  as 
sympathetically  as  I  do,  one  must  know  them 
without  prejudice.  Probably  on  the  other  hand 


RELIGION  AND  POLITICS        325 

I  shall  not  escape  the  charge  of  timidity  when  I 
say  that  in  the  countries  in  Europe  from  which 
our  present  immigration  flows  the  Church  has 
fostered  the  form  of  religion  and  has  too  often 
neglected  its  ethical  demands  ;  or  perhaps  that  it 
has  laid  greater  emphasis  upon  the  poetry  of  re- 
ligion than  upon  its  stern  prose. 

Into  the  Easter  celebration  the  Greek  Orthodox 
churches  have  woven  all  the  charm  which  the  re- 
ligious mind  can  invent.  I  have  seen  almost  the 
third  heaven  opened  on  Easter  eve  in  Russia  and 
also  in  Poland.  Yet  hardly  had  the  last  trium- 
phant cry,  "  Christ  is  risen  "  died  upon  the  gray 
morning,  when  the  same  mob  which  shouted, 
"  Christ  is  risen,"  also  cried,  "  Kill  the  Jews." 
KishenefT,  Bialistok,  Sedlice  and  the  scenes  of 
small  and  large  pogroms  in  Poland,  Austria  and 
Hungary,  which  have  remained  unrecorded,  are 
sufficient  proof  of  the  fact  that  many  of  the  Slavic 
people  have  no  idea  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  ; 
and  that  religion  to  them  is  a  matter  of  form  nec- 
essary to  observe,  a  sort  of  charm  against  evil 
spirits  and  bad  luck. 

In  this  respect,  however,  the  churches  concerned 
are  not  sinners  above  others  ;  and  the  Protestant 
churches  in  America  have  also  been  more  success- 
ful with  the  millinery  of  religion  than  with  its  es- 
sence. It  would  be  wrong  to  say  that  the  people 
who  now  come  to  us  will  dull  our  religious 
faculties,  and  make  them  less  impressionable. 


326  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

Nothing  could  be  further  from  the  truth ;  for  es- 
sentially they  are  a  religious  people  and  even 
now  there  are  taking  place  among  them  great  re- 
ligious developments.  I  believe  that  in  the  crude 
state  in  which  the  present  immigrant  comes,  he  is 
ready  for  the  best  the  Church  can  give  to  him. 
No  one  church  is  equal  to  the  task,  and  antago- 
nistic as  they  may  be  towards  one  another,  I  be- 
lieve the  nation  needs  both  the  Protestant  and 
Catholic  types ;  that  the  field  now  is  so  large  and 
the  problem  so  difficult,  that  they  both  need  to 
put  forth  their  best  efforts.  Each  needs  to  prove 
Lessing's  story  of  the  "  Three  Rings  "  ;  each  needs 
to  prove  that  it  has  the  true  ring,  the  true  mes- 
sage of  redemption,  and  it  can  prove  that  best  by 
living  its  best,  and  by  noblest  endeavour  for 
these  children  of  men  who  have  brought  to  our 
doors  the  problem  of  Christianizing  the  whole 
world. 

The  breadth  of  vision  and  the  depth  of  convic- 
tion which  animate  a  certain  section  of  America 
in  this  respect,  are  best  illustrated  by  these  ringing 
words  from  a  recent  address  by  President  Tucker 
of  Dartmouth  College: 

"  If  God  were  not  pouring  into  New  England 
out  of  the  riches  of  other  countries,  New  England 
would  be  empty.  While  the  latest  foreigner  may 
not  compare  favourably  with  the  native  stock, 
what  of  the  second  and  third  generations  of 
foreigners  ?  They  are  forging  to  the  front,  partly 


RELIGION  AND  POLITICS        327 

because  of  their  virility  and  ambition,  and  partly 
through  the  sacrifice  of  the  homes  to  educate 
their  children.  The  rising  scale  of  foreign  popula- 
tion is  on  a  better  level  than  the  falling  scale  of 
the  native  population.  If  the  old  New  England 
stock  is  not  willing  to  sacrifice  as  it  used  to,  and 
if  the  New  England  boy  is  not  as  ambitious  as  his 
•  grandfather,  I  thank  God  that  he  is  sending  us 
those  who  are  willing  to  sacrifice  and  anxious  to 
rise  ;  and  that  he  is  giving  this  challenge  to  the 
old  stock  :  Rise  up  and  show  yourselves !  If 
we  do  not  see  and  feel  it,  it  is  to  our  shame.  We 
are  not  the  elect  of  God  unless  we  prove  our 
election,  and  if  He  can  do  better  for  the  world 
through  some  other  stock  and  religion  than 
through  the  native  stock  and  Protestant  religion, 
let  Him  work  in  His  own  way." 

I  need  not  say  here  how  large  a  place  the 
public  school  and  the  settlement  both  have  (in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  they  are  often  called  godless 
institutions)  in  making  religious  impressions 
upon  the  immigrant.  The  glimpse  of  a  higher 
world,  the  world  of  the  spirit,  has  been  given  to 
many  eyes  almost  blind  to  the  divine  light,  by 
modest  men  and  women  who  have  worn  neither 
cassock  nor  crosses,  and  who  were  ordained  to 
their  holy  task  only  as  they  felt  the  touch  of 
needy  children  resting  upon  their  hearts. 

I  recall  a  little,  sharp-eyed  Jewish  lad  whom 
lured  from  his  news  stand  by  recklessly  buying 


328  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

his  whole  stock  of  evening  papers.  He  had 
lived  in  Boston  five  years  and  was  Bostonese,  to 
the  dropping  of  his  Rs,  and  the  picking  them  up 
again,  to  put  where  they  did  not  belong.  He  was 
a  product  of  the  public  school,  not  yet  finished,  but 
in  the  making ;  and  over  him  hovered  the  bene- 
diction of  some  noble  teacher,  whose  glory  he  re- 
flected. "  Teacher  ?  O  yes !  teacher  was  even 
more  than  parents,  almost  like  God.  Teacher 
knew  more  than  the  stupid  rabbi,  who  tried  to 
drill  into  him  the  Hebrew  alphabet." 

The  boy  had  neither  church  nor  synagogue, 
nor  priest  nor  preacher  nor  rabbi ;  he  had  but  two 
things  to  cling  to,  the  school  and  the  settlement. 
Piteous  was  his  scorn  of  the  faith  of  his  fathers, 
the  accusation  and  condemnation  of  everything 
Jewish,  the  contempt  with  which  he  called  his 
people  "  Sheney "  ;  the  horror  of  fast  and  feast 
days,  and  his  delight  in  the  anticipation  of  a  Jew- 
ish Sabbath  meal.  He  will  become  what  Max 
Nordau  calls  a  "  stomach  Jew,"  in  opposition  to 
the  "soul  Jews,"  who  alas!  are  growing  fewer 
and  fewer,  on  both  sides  of  the  sea. 

This  boy,  grown  up,  or  growing  up  in  Boston, 
knew  nothing  of  us,  of  our  type  of  Christianity, 
or  of  Christianity  at  all ;  except  the  fact  that  the 
world  is  divided  between  Christians  and  Jews. 
The  settlement  has  done  something  for  him ;  it 
has  given  his  unskilled  fingers  the  taste  for  handi- 
craft, and  he  told  me  with  honest  pride  of  the 


RELIGION  AND  POLITICS        329 

things  he  had  made  with  "  his  own  hands."  It 
has  also  given  him  a  knowledge  of  human  kind- 
ness, although  he  does  not  yet  realize  that  the 
men  and  women  in  the  settlements  are  working 
because  of  the  love  they  have  for  God's  djil- 
dren. 

I  have  found  Jews  everywhere  who  were 
Christian  in  spirit ;  and  the  distance  between 
synagogue  and  church  is  as  great  as  it  is,  only 
because  of  prejudices,  which  the  church  has  not 
yet  allayed  and  which  unconsciously  it  is  increas- 
ing. 

The  Jew  is  suspicious  of  missions  and  mission- 
aries and  has  good  reason  to  be,  but  he  responds 
quickly  to  the  notes  of  true  religion  whenever 
they  strike  his  heart ;  even  as  he  responds  quickly 
to  the  best  things  in  our  national  life. 

I  recall  walking  through  Boston  in  the  streets 
stretching  South  and  far  North  where  Russia 
and  Polish  Jews  live.  They  are  keepers  of  shops 
of  all  varieties,  busy  scavengers  of  second-hand 
articles ;  busier  than  we  know,  with  thread  and 
needle  in  clothing  and  sweat  shops.  They  are 
dealers  in  junk,  the  refuse  and  wreckage  of  our 
industrial  establishments ;  creators  of  new  avenues 
of  trade  and  of  some  new  industries.  Some  of 
these  Jews  know  that  they  live  in  Boston  and  act 
like  it.  I  had  alighted  at  the  North  Station  and 
was  walking  with  a  lady  whose  luggage  I  had 
offered  to  carry  to  the  car.  She  had  a  baby  on 


330  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

one  arm  and  a  large  satchel  in  the  other  hand,  so 
in  order  not  to  knock  against  her  with  the  heavy 
valise  which  I  carried,  I  walked  on  the  inside. 
Suddenly  from  his  shop  door,  a  Russian  Jew,  in 
English  strongly  tainted  by  Yiddish,  called  out : 
"  You  greenhorn,  don't  you  know  that  in  Boston 
men  don't  walk  on  the  insides  of  the  ladies  ? " 
Promptly,  as  though  impelled  by  a  command,  I 
shifted  my  load,  and  "  walked  on  the  outside  of 
the  lady." 

That  Jew  had  been  responsive  to  Boston's 
spirit  of  decorum  and  would  be  equally  responsive 
to  the  best  in  its  religious  life  if  it  were  presented 
to  him.  He  likes  least  to  be  singled  out  as  a  Jew 
and  to  be  dealt  with  as  such,  either  by  churches 
or  missions.  He  is  most  easily  approached  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  average  man,  and  not  from 
the  peculiar  racial  and  religious  standpoint  of  the 
Jew. 

Side  by  side  with  the  religious  problem  is  grow- 
ing to  menacing  proportions  the  problem  of  poli- 
tics. A  nation  like  our  own,  ideally  founded 
upon  universal  suffrage,  is  putting  its  destinies  in 
the  hands  of  men  untrained  in  citizenship  ;  the 
very  name  citizen  being  so  new  to  them  that  they 
cannot  easily  grasp  its  meaning.  The  tutelage 
of  Tammany  Hall  and  of  its  kind  all  over  the 
United  States  has  been  a  bad  preparation  for  so 
momentous  a  task.  It  does  not  diminish  the 
greatness  of  the  problem  in  the  least  when  I  say 


ON  THE   DAY   OF   ATONEMENT. 


suppose 


The  distance  between  synagogue  and  church  is  really  not  so  great  as  some 
ose.     Many  a  Jew  is  Christian  in  spirit  if  not  in  creed. 


RELIGION  A^7D  POLITICS        331 

that  the  foreigner  is  usually  the  innocent  tool,  in 
a  corrupting  process  which  has  been  going  on 
for  many  years,  and  to  the  existence  of  which 
the  nation  is  just  awaking. 

I  have  been  offered  citizenship  papers  in  the 
city  of  New  York  for  ten  dollars ;  and  have  seen 
them  peddled  by  Americans  who  had  back  of 
them  the  protection  of  political  bosses  of  no  less 
genuine  American  ancestry.  I  have  seen  whole 
groups  of  Polanders  marched  to  the  ballot-box, 
when  they  were  so  drunk  that  they  had  to  be 
kept  erect  by  a  stalwart  American  patriot  who 
swore  that  they  had  the  right  to  vote,  when  they 
had  scarcely  been  a  year  in  this  country.  I  have 
seen  men  who  are  respected  in  their  communities, 
buy  votes  wherever  they  could  get  them,  corrupt- 
ing a  mass  of  men  who  were  as  ignorant  of  the 
process  of  voting  and  as  unfitted  for  it,  as  little 
babes ;  and  these  very  men  I  have  heard  loudly 
proclaiming  the  corrupting  influence  of  the  foreign 
element. 

With  all  that,  the  foreigner  is  rising  in  the  scale 
of  citizenship  and  is  not  so  bad  as  he  has  the 
right  to  be,  considering  the  example  set  him. 
Delaware  is  not  controlled  by  foreigners,  yet  the 
peaches  in  its  political  basket  are  rotten  both  at 
the  top  and  at  the  bottom.  Connecticut,  the 
"  Constitution  State  "  as  it  loves  to  call  itself,  is 
still  dominantly  American,  and  yet  there  are  so 
many  "  wooden  nutmegs  "  in  the  spice  box  of  its 


332  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

magnificent  State  House  that  its  best  citizens  are 
hanging  their  heads  from  shame.  New  Hamp- 
shire and  Vermont  are  not  model  States,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  the  foreign  vote  is  almost  " nil"  ; 
while  the  city  of  Philadelphia  cannot  claim  that 
it  is  better  governed  than  the  city  of  New  York, 
where  the  foreign  population  predominates  and 
dominates. 

The  immigrant,  it  is  true,  will  sell  his  vote  ;  but 
the  American  buys  it,  and  sells  it  too,  and  he  is 
the  greater  traitor ;  because  he  is  betraying  his 
native  country. 

Again,  this  does  not  assume  that  the  immi- 
grant is  not  a  political  problem ;  he  is,  but  only 
because  we  are,  and  in  this  he  rises  and  falls  with 
us,  and  sometimes  rises  above  us.  All  that 
which  we  call  patriotism  he  quickly  imbibes.  He 
loves  the  Fourth  of  July,  and  he  knows  its  mean- 
ing and  its  value  often  better  than  the  native  born. 
I  have  no  fear  on  that  score  ;  and  should  America, 
God  forbid,  engage  in  war,  you  would  find  at  the 
very  front  the  Jew,  the  Slav,  and  the  Italian  with 
the  Yankee,  fighting  the  same  battle ;  yes,  and 
fighting  his  own  people  should  they  unjustly 
attack  us. 

Who  doubts  that  the  German  Americans  would 
fight  in  our  war  against  Germany,  if  it  were  a  just 
war — if  war  be  ever  just ;  and  who  would  doubt 
for  a  moment  that  the  Italians,  Russians  and 
French  would  fight  on  our  side  if  their  govern- 


RELIGION  AND  POLITICS        333 

ments  should  land  soldiers  on  this  continent  ?  No 
one  doubts  it. 

They  are  caught  by  the  contagious  enthusiasm 
of  our  patriotism,  and  will  outdo  us ;  for  they 
love  America  as  no  native  can  love  it.  Neither 
do  I  fear  that  they  will  fail  us  in  fighting  our 
greater  battles  against  injustice  and  against  cor- 
ruption in  high  places.  What  I  fear  is  that  they 
will  fight,  that  they  will  become  one  with  the  tu- 
multuous mob,  which  may  at  any  time  arise  and 
blindly  demand  its  long  deferred  dividends  for 
its  share  of  labour,  toil  and  suffering.  I  fear 
that  we  are  gathering  inflammable  material  from 
the  dissatisfied  of  all  the  nations,  who  here  may 
endeavour  to  reek  vengeance  upon  all  govern- 
ments ;  a  mass  easily  inflamed  by  demagogues 
and  made  a  scourge  in  the  land,  when  the  land 
needs  scourging. 

No  nation  has  ever  faced  such  a  problem  as 
we  are  facing ;  not  only  because  of  its  gigantic 
proportions,  nor  because  of  its  peculiar  nature, 
but  because  of  the  fact  that  the  nation's  weal  or 
woe  is  being  decided  right  before  our  very  eyes ; 
because  its  shroud  or  its  wedding  garment  is 
now  being  woven,  and  we  who  live  to-day  may 
stretch  our  hands  against  the  threads  of  the  loom 
and  say  which  it  shall  be. 


XXIII 

BIRDS  OF  PASSAGE 

AGAIN  the  ship's  band  plays  the  songs  of  the 
Fatherland,  while  marching  up  the  streets  of 
Hoboken  towards  the  dock,  comes  a  long  pro- 
cession of  men  escorting  one  of  the  chief  citizens 
of  the  town.  He  is  the  owner  of  the  largest  sa- 
loon and  is  about  to  visit  his  native  land  across 
the  sea.  The  decks  of  the  steamer  are  crowded 
by  passengers  and  their  friends,  and  through  the 
discordant  noise  of  rattling  chains  one  hears  the 
mingled  notes  of  joy  and  sorrow,  until  finally  at 
the  stern  command  of  the  captain  the  long  home- 
ward journey  has  begun. 

The  steerage  of  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  II  is 
crowded  to  the  limit ;  and  Jews,  Slavs,  Italians 
and  Germans  are  beginning  to  settle  down  in 
their  congested  quarters,  in  a  somewhat  closer 
fellowship  than  on  the  westward  journey  ;  for 
now  they  have  a  common  experience  and  a  few 
sentences  of  common  language  to  bind  them  to 
one  another. 

The  women  all  of  them,  have  discarded  the 
peasant's  dress  and  are  bedecked  in  the  spoils  of 
bargain  counters  ;  while  the  men  invariably  wear 
"  store  clothes,"  always  carry  huge  watches  and 

334 


BIRDS  OF  PASSAGE  335 

not  rarely  a  revolver.  Where  you  still  see  peas- 
ant's clothing  you  will  find  a  heavy  spirit  within 
it ;  for  the  wearer  is  one  of  the  unfortunates  who 
was  turned  back  from  "  the  gate  which  leads  into 
the  city." 

The  steerage  passengers  may  be  roughly  di- 
vided into  two  classes :  those  who  go  home  be- 
cause they  have  succeeded,  and  those  who  go 
home  because  they  have  failed.  Those  who  have 
succeeded  have  not  yet  reached  the  point  of 
achievement  which  lifts  them  from  the  steerage 
to  the  cabin,  but  still  belong  to  that  large  class 
which  goes  back  to  the  Fatherland  for  a  season 
and  then  returns,  to  try  again  the  road  to  for- 
tune. More  than  one-fourth  of  all  our  immi- 
grants belong  to  this  class  and  have  to  be  reck- 
oned with  when  the  sum  total  is  counted.  While 
I  cannot  give  the  exact  figures  I  should  say  that 
nearly  two  hundred  thousand  men  and  women 
go  back  and  forth  each  year. 

This  class  has  lost  much  of  the  Old  World 
spirit  and  is  neither  so  docile  nor  so  polite  as  it 
was  when  first  it  occupied  these  quarters.  The 
ship's  crew  has  become  more  civil  towards  it, 
which  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  homeward 
bound  steerage  passenger  has  grown  to  be  some- 
thing more  of  a  man,  has  more  self-assertion  and 
more  dollars  ;  all  of  which  has  power  to  subdue 
the  over-officious  crew.  The  men  have  learned 
more  or  less  English,  which  is  freely  interspersed 


336  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

by  oaths,  while  the  women  can  say  :  "  Yes,  no, 
and  good-bye "  call  their  "  Dum,  de  house " 
and  are  fairly  versed  in  the  language  of  the 
grocery  and  dry  goods  store.  They  can  say 
"  how  much  "  and  even  "  you  bet  "  ;  but  beyond 
that,  the  English  language  has  remained  "  terra 
incognita  "  to  them. 

The  women  are  the  birds  of  passage  who  most 
gladly  go  back ;  for  they  are  loyal  to  their  kins- 
men, to  their  home  and  their  traditions,  not 
having  been  long  enough  in  America  to  prize 
the  great  privileges  of  womanhood  here. 

The  children  are  most  loath  to  return  ;  espe- 
cially those  who  have  gone  to  school  here  and 
who  in  their  migrations  to  and  fro,  have  learned 
the  difference. 

Anushka,  a  bright  twelve  year  old  girl  goes 
from  a  Pennsylvania  town,  to  the  Frenczin  dis- 
trict in  Hungary.  She  is  dressed  "  American 
fashion,"  has  gone  to  the  public  school  and 
speaks  English  fairly  well. 

"  Anushka  moya,  tell  me,  do  you  like  to  go 
back  to  Hungary  ?  "  and  the  little  girl  tells  me  : 
"  No,  siree.  America  is  the  best  country. 
There  we  have  white  bread  and  butter  and 
candy,  and  I  can  chew  gum  to  beat  the  band  ;  " 
and  tears  fill  her  eyes  at  the  memory  of  the 
American  luxuries  which  she  has  tasted.  If  she 
stays  in  her  mountain  village  she  will  degenerate 
into  the  common  life  about  her,  and  marry  a 


BIRDS  OF  PASSAGE  337 

peasant  lad  with  whom  she  will  hover  between 
enough  and  starvation,  all  the  days  of  her  life. 
Yet  she  will  never  forget  America,  the  white 
bread  and  butter,  the  candy  and  the  chewing- 
gum. 

In  a  little  village  in  Hungary  I  know  a  woman 
who  in  her  youth  had  tasted  all  these  things  and 
the  freedom  of  life  in  Chicago.  Now,  although 
she  has  been  married  fifteen  years  and  has  lived 
away  from  America  longer  than  that,  she  speaks 
with  glowing  eyes  of  the  time  when  she  lived  on 
South  Halstad  Street,  ate  thin  bread  with  thick 
jam  on  it,  and  the  land  was  flowing  with  sau- 
sages, lager  beer  and  chewing-gum. 

Most  blessed  are  the  girls  who  have  been  in 
service  in  American  families.  They  have  learned 
English  well,  and  also  the  ways  of  the  American 
household.  They  have  tasted  of  the  spirit  of 
Democracy  which  permeates  our  serving  class, 
and  when  such  an  one  returns  to  her  native 
village  she  unsettles  the  relations  of  servant  and 
mistress.  Therefore,  her  coming  is  dreaded  by 
the  "Hausfrau"  who  has  had  one  servant-girl 
through  many  years,  paying  her  fifteen  dollars  a 
year  and  treating  her  like  a  beast.  Shall  I  quote 
one  of  those  mistresses  ?  "  What  kind  of  coun- 
try is  that  anyway,  that  America  ?  These  serv- 
ant girls  come  back  with  gold  teeth  in  their 
mouths,  and  with  long  dresses  which  sweep  the 
streets,  and  with  unbearable  manners.  They  do 


338  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

not  kiss  our  hands  when  they  meet  us,  and  when 
they  speak  of  their  mistress  in  America  they 
speak  of  her  as  if  they  were  her  equals.  When 
one  of  those  girls  comes  home  with  her  finery 
and  her  money,  we  are  liable  to  lose  every  serv- 
ant ;  and  wages  are  going  up  fabulously/' 

I  met  one  of  these  servant-girls  "  with  gold 
teeth  in  her  mouth"  after  she  had  lived  three 
years  in  America,  and  I  found  that  she  had  ac- 
quired something  besides  gold  teeth.  She  had 
learned  to  speak  both  German  and  English,  she 
had  manners  which  were  refined,  she  had  been 
uplifted  by  an  American  mistress  out  of  her 
peasant  life  to  a  plane  which  women  reach  no- 
where but  in  America,  and  she  was  the  equal  if 
not  the  superior,  of  any  of  the  young  women  in 
her  village,  who  had  had  the  privilege  of  a  com- 
mon school  education  which  had  been  denied  to 
her,  because  of  her  lowly  origin.  It  is  true,  she 
did  sweep  the  streets  with  her  long  skirts  ;  but 
she  did  it  gracefully.  She  walked  as  the  women 
on  Fifth  Avenue  walk,  and  she  shook  hands  with 
me  after  the  most  approved  fashion. 

The  older  women  on  the  ship  returned  without 
any  of  these  graces.  They  had  been  pining  for 
the  Fatherland,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  one 
of  them  was  going  back  to  a  half-starved  coun- 
try, she  said  :  "In  Chicago,  you  no  can  get  any 
tink  to  eat." 

In  a  general  way  it  may  be  said  that  it  made  a 


BIRDS  OF  PASSAGE  339 

vast  difference  where  and  how  the  men  had  lived 
in  America,  as  to  whether  they  carried  anything 
but  American  dollars  back  with  them.  Both  the 
men  and  the  women  who  had  been  in  service  in 
American  homes  showed  the  largest  inheritance 
of  our  spirit ;  while  those  who  lived  in  the  con- 
gested foreign  quarters  had  simply  changed 
climates  for  a  while,  lost  some  robustness  and  a 
few  native  virtues,  and  gained  a  modest  bank 
account. 

Yet  even  among  those  I  could  notice  changes 
and  gains  which  cannot  be  tabulated  and  which 
at  the  first  glance  might  be  put  down  as  losses ; 
an  indefinite  something  which  has  gone  into 
their  fibre  for  better  or  for  worse.  This  was 
most  crudely  illustrated  by  a  Ruthenian  who  had 
lived  twenty-five  years  in  America ;  eleven  years 
in  a  coal  mining  district  and  the  rest  of  the  time 
in  a  New  England  manufacturing  town.  He 
told  me  about  his  aspirations  for  his  son,  who  is 
"  very  smart  and  will  not  work  with  his  hands." 
He  talked  in  Russian :  "  Yes,  my  son  will  be 
educated.  I  have  money  enough  for  that.  I  am 
stupid  and  must  bear  all  sorts  of  things,  but 
when  a  man  is  educated,  he  can  raisovat  helle  as 
much  as  he  wants."  The  form  in  which  he  put 
the  American  phrase  saves  the  necessity  of  writ- 
ing it  in  dashes. 

I  have  not  yet  seen  a  village  in  Hungary, 
Russia  or  Italy,  to  which  any  number  of  men  has 


340  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

returned  even  after  a  short  sojourn  in  America, 
without  that  community's  gaining  in  some  ways 
at  least.  Better  houses  certainly  were  built,  with 
more  or  less  sanitary  improvements  according  to 
the  conditions  under  which  the  men  or  women 
have  lived  in  America.  It  makes  a  vast  differ- 
ence whether  the  men  have  lived  in  mining 
camps  or  in  the  cities.  Undoubtedly  the  peasant 
who  has  lived  in  a  small  American  city  where  he 
could  easily  feel  and  touch  its  life  brings  home 
the  greatest  spirit  of  progress. 

Agricultural  conditions  have  improved  rapidly 
in  Hungary  and  Poland ;  business  in  not  a  few 
instances  has  been  put  upon  an  American  basis, 
which  means  not  only  more  efficiency,  but 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  more  honesty  ;  and  the 
scale  of  living  has  risen  wherever  a  large  number 
of  people  has  gone  to  and  fro  across  the  sea. 

The  steerage  holds  numbers  who  go  back  be- 
cause they  have  not  succeeded,  and  many  who 
are  broken  in  health,  who  have  been  burned  by 
the  fires,  scalded  by  the  steam  and  parched  by 
our  heat.  Men  and  women  with  spirits  broken, 
who  are  not  going  back,  but  crawling  back  into 
the  shelter  of  the  Old  World  home. 

"  O  !  panye,"  cried  one  of  those  to  whom  I 
tried  to  minister  :  "  it  is  an  awful  country !  You 
don't  know  whether  they  walk  on  their  heads  or 
on  their  feet ;  they  do  not  stop  to  eat  nor  sleep, 
and  they  drive  one  as  the  water  drives  the  vil- 


BIRDS  OF  PASSAGE  341 

lage  mill.  They  build  a  house  one  minute  and 
tear  it  down  the  next ;  the  cities  grow  like  mush- 
rooms and  disappear  like  grass  before  a  swarm 
of  locusts.  The  air  is  black  in  the  city  where  I 
lived ;  black  as  the  inside  of  the  chimney  in  my 
cabin,  and  the  water  they  drink  looks  like  cab- 
bage soup.  The  cars  go  like  a  whirlwind  over 
the  Puszta  (prairie)  and  I  should  rather  stand 
among  a  thousand  stampeding  horses  on  the 
plains,  than  on  one  of  those  dreadful  street  cor- 
ners. How  terribly  those  whistles  blow  in  the 
morning  and  how  dark  and  dismal  are  those 
shops,  where  they  eat  up  iron  and  men  out  of 
bowls  as  big  as  the  barn  of  our  '  Pan  '  (master). 
The  heat  outside  burns  and  the  heat  inside 
blisters,  and  when  it  is  cold  it  freezes  the  blood. 
No,  no,"  and  he  groaned  in  terror  at  the  re- 
membrance of  it ;  "no  more  America  for  me. 
That's  all  I  have,"  pointing  to  his  scant  clothing. 
"  I  am  going  back  a  beggar." 

Women  too  there  are  whose  bodies  and  spirits 
are  nearly  broken  ;  and  they  go  back  to  wait  for 
their  release.  Among  these,  there  was  one 
Bohemian  woman  from  New  York,  whose  hollow 
cough  and  glowing  cheeks  betrayed  the  arch 
destroyer  at  work.  She  was  one  of  six  thousand 
cigar  makers  employed  by  one  firm,  and  she  had 
laboured  five  years  in  that  shop  and  rolled  many 
thousands  of  cigars  into  shape.  As  she  had  to 
bite  the  end  of  every  cigar,  she  swallowed  much 


342  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

tobacco  juice,  and  breathed  in  much  tobacco 
dust.  She  had  attained  great  proficiency  and 
could  earn  twenty  dollars  a  week ;  but  she  had 
ruined  her  health,  had  spent  all  her  savings  for 
medicine  and  now  was  going  home  to  die.  She 
was  in  that  stage  where  hope  had  not  left  her, 
and  she  was  bent  on  making  the  last  great  fight 
for  life  in  the  shelter  of  her  "  Matushka's  "  love. 

Two  old  genteel  looking  people  always  stood 
out  from  the  coarse  mass  because  they  kept 
clean  in  spite  of  the  odds  against  them  in  the 
steerage,  and  because  they  were  always  together. 
Up  and  down  the  slippery  stairs  they  went,  like 
two  lovers.  Even  seasickness  did  not  separate 
them  and  when  the  sun  shone  they  were  on  deck, 
solemnly  smiling  back  to  heaven.  They  had  left 
their  all  in  America  ;  their  children  were  sleeping 
in  the  strange  soil,  and  now  they  were  going 
back  to  the  little  town  in  Austria  from  which 
they  had  gone  thirty-seven  years  before.  They 
felt  too  rich  in  one  another  to  rail  against  their 
fate,  and  their  complaint  was  as  gentle  as  their 
pain  was  deep.  They  had  come  to  America  full 
and  now  they  were  going  home  empty  ;  three 
sons  and  two  daughters  they  had  brought,  and 
childless  they  were  going  back  ;  but  "  The  Lord 
had  given  and  the  Lord  had  taken  away/'  and 
they  blessed  the  name  of  the  Lord. 

Those  who  had  prospered  in  America,  and 
they  were  the  majority,  carried  home  with  them 


BIRDS  OF  PASSAGE  343 

sums  of  money  which  in  the  aggregate, 
amounted,  among  600,  to  four  thousand  dollars, 
which  did  not  however  represent  all  they  had 
saved ;  for  each  week  they  had  sent  small  sums 
to  their  homes,  and  the  money  sent  from  America 
to  Austria  and  Italy  has  been  a  great  economic 
factor  in  the  life  of  those  countries.  The  total 
sum  must  reach  into  many  millions.  Nor  does 
this  sum  represent  an  entire  loss  to  our  country  ; 
for  the  more  money  there  is  in  a  Slav  or  Italian 
village  the  more  and  better  cotton  goods  are 
bought.  The  daily  diet  contains  more  American 
lard,  the  household  is  likely  to  be  enriched  by  an 
American  sewing-machine,  and  the  notes  of  the 
phonograph  are  "  heard  in  the  land," — which  too 
comes  from  America. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  gainers  by  this  constant 
coming  and  going  are  the  steamship  companies, 
which  for  a  comparatively  large  sum  of  money 
provide  quarters  that  in  a  very  short  time  be- 
come unfit  for  human  beings.  The  thrifty  pas- 
sengers, and  there  are  not  a  few  of  them,  who 
believe  that  the  steerage  going  to  Europe  is  not 
so  crowded  as  coming  to  America,  and  that  they 
can  risk  travelling  that  way,  are  very  much  mis- 
taken. Even  moderately  rough  weather  makes 
the  unsheltered  deck  impossible;  the  nether 
decks  of  the  ship  become  full  of  sickening  odours 
and  seasickness  claims  nearly  all  the  passengers 
as  victims.  There  is  no  escape ;  even  on  so 


344  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

large  a  ship  as  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  //all  must  re- 
main in  their  bunks.  On  my  last  trip  I  counted 
five  bitter  days  when  not  one  steerage  passenger 
could  go  on  deck,  while  the  cabin  passengers 
were  travelling  over  comparatively  quiet  waters. 
When  the  sea  has  become  as  smooth  as  a  mill- 
pond  the  steerage  passengers  may  venture  out ; 
800  people,  crowded  in  a  small  space,  soon  be- 
come acquainted  and  need  not  wait  for  an  in- 
troduction. Less,  much  less  than  on  the  out- 
ward journey  have  the  races  kept  themselves 
apart ;  it  is  true  you  may  still  discover  groups  of 
Slavs,  Italians  or  Jews  ;  but  they  have  approached 
the  gates  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  you  may 
find  your  brotherhoods  made  up  of  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  I  had  around  me  a  group  of  forty 
men  who  belonged  to  seventeen  nationalities,  to 
four  faiths  and  to  many  stations  in  life  ;  yet  we 
felt  ourselves  bound  to  one  another  by  a  meagre 
knowledge  of  the  English  language  and  by  our 
common  experience  in  America.  Most  of  these 
men  felt  themselves  intensely  American ;  and  that 
was  what  held  us  together  and  in  a  measure 
separated  us  from  the  mass.  For  the  majority 
of  these  birds  of  passage  are  not  yet  American,  as 
the  following  instance  will  illustrate.  In  taking  a 
rough  census  of  the  politics  of  the  steerage,  I 
asked  one  man  :  "  How  do  you  like  President 
Roosevelt  ?  "  He  replied  :  "  I  no  know  him.  I 
guess  he  good  man,  I  get  my  pay  at  shop ;  I 


BIRDS  OF  PASSAGE  345 

work,  I  get  pay,  I  guess  that  all  right."  A  few 
expressed  both  admiration  for  the  President  and 
loyalty  to  him,  and  hoped  he  would  run  for  an- 
other term.  They  had  opinions  in  politics 
and  some  even  declared  themselves  neither  Re- 
publicans nor  Democrats,  but  "  Inepenny."  My 
group  of  forty  men,  growing  at  the  end  of  the 
journey  to  nearly  fifty,  were  a  loyal  set,  and  an 
honest  one. 

Each  of  the  men  had  earned  the  little  money 
he  had,  by  hard  labour  ;  not  one  of  them  by  bar- 
ter, and  each  had  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  higher 
life  in  America. 

The  Slavs  were  nearly  all  Democrats,  the 
Italians  were  Republicans,  and  so  were  the  Jews. 
There  were  six  Social  Democrats  in  the  group, 
nearly  evenly  divided  among  the  three  races ; 
and  they  were  the  best  educated  if  not  the  most 
companionable  of  the  number.  The  whole  group 
was  eager  to  know,  and  the  questions  asked 
were  as  pertinent  as  numerous.  All  of  them  ex- 
pected to  return  to  America  before  another  year, 
and  each  of  them  will  grow  into  the  full  stature 
of  the  American  man. 

The  touch  with  the  mass  in  the  steerage  can 
be  but  light ;  yet  I  have  looked  into  the  smiling 
faces  of  little  children,  I  have  played  with  the 
steerage  boys  and  girls,  I  have  talked  with  every 
one  of  the  five  hundred  adult  passengers  in  the 
steerage,  and  I  can  still  say  that  usually  all  of 


346  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

them  return  with  some  blessing,  with  some  wealth 
gained,  and  better  for  having  been  in  America. 

The  boys  and  girls  are  more  boisterous  and 
self-assertive,  while  the  men  and  women  are  less 
cringingly  polite  than  they  were.  They  have 
lost  some  things  but  have  gained  more  ;  and  I 
am  convinced  that  the  country  in  which  they 
have  toiled  these  years  has  been  enriched  by  the 
price  of  their  labour. 

How  far  these  birds  of  passage  present  an 
economic  problem  is  at  present  difficult  to  deter- 
mine. Those  who  remain  form  the  greater  prob- 
lem, which  is  more  than  an  economic  one. 


XXIV 

IN  THE  SECOND  CABIN 

IF  the  man  who  said,  "  Give  me  neither  poverty 
nor  riches  "  had  been  a  modern  globe  trotter  he 
might  have  added :  "  And  when  I  cross  the 
ocean  let  me  travel  neither  in  the  first  cabin  nor 
in  the  steerage  but  in  the  second  cabin."  That 
is  if  he  cared  more  for  the  companionship  of 
human  beings  than  for  the  luxuries  of  modern 
life,  and  if  he  had  not  objected  to  the  fact  that 
the  second  cabin  is  located  directly  over  the  power- 
ful driving  gear  of  the  ship. 

Because  of  the  latter  fact  one  may  experience  a 
"continuous  performance  "  of  an  earthquake  with- 
out its  disastrous  results,  and  yet  not  without 
consequences  which  at  the  moment  seem  very 
serious.  The  second  cabin  does  not  lapse  into 
the  silence  of  the  steerage  nor  into  the  dignity  of 
the  first  cabin,  but  begins  its  noisy  comradely 
immediately  ;  being  interrupted  only,  when  the 
earthquake  plays  havoc  with  good  nature,  and 
resumed  as  soon  as  the  appetite  for  food  and 
drink  returns. 

The  second  cabin  usually  holds  only  one  class ; 
the  class  which  has  succeeded.  It  contains  a 
sprinkling  of  native  Americans,  teachers  and 

347 


348  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

preachers,  whose  modest  savings  are  to  be  spread 
thinly  over  Europe ;  its  usual  occupants  are 
foreigners,  who  after  a  longer  or  shorter  sojourn, 
return  for  a  visit  to  the  cradle  home.  The  Hobo- 
ken  saloon-keeper  who  was  escorted  by  the  band 
to  the  dock,  and  in  whose  honour  it  played  "  Lieb 
Vaterland  magst  ruhig  sein,"  is  a  typical  second 
class  passenger  on  a  German  ship  ;  and  his  like 
in  large  numbers  come  from  Cincinnati,  St. 
Louis,  Milwaukee  and  other  cities  made  famous 
by  their  output  of  sparkling  lager. 

I  discovered  on  this  journey  more  than  thirty 
dispensers  of  drink  who  were  at  the  bar  from 
morning  until  midnight,  and  doing  exactly  as 
they  like  their  customers  to  do  by  them ;  drink- 
ing and  getting  drunk.  The  Hoboken  saloon- 
keeper bore  the  typical  name  of  August,  and 
every  one  of  the  ship's  crew  down  to  the  smallest 
scullion,  knew  this  famous  August  and  delighted 
to  bask  in  the  uncertainty  of  his  sunshine  and  to 
be  the  beneficiary  of  his  spasmodic  generosity, 
He  was  drunk  from  the  moment  he  came  on 
board  the  steamer  until  he  left  it,  and  in  his 
melancholy  moments  confided  in  me,  telling  me 
the  story  of  his  life  and  the  magnitude  of  his 
fortune.  He  was  born  in  Bremerhaven,  the  ter- 
minus of  that  great  ferry  which  begins  at  Hobo- 
ken.  He  boasted  the  friendship  of  the  Commo- 
dore of  the  German  Lloyd  fleet,  with  whom  he 
had  gone  to  school,  and  the  smoking  room 


IN  THE  SECOND  CABIN  349 

steward  was  called  to  assert  this  fact.  "  Steward, 
you  k-know  me  ?  "  "  Yes,  you're  August' '  "  D-do 
you  know  about  C-Captain  Schmidt?"  "Yes, 
you  sailed  under  him  to  South  Africa."  "  N-no, 
you  f-fool ;  I  went  to  school  with  him,"  and 
obediently  the  steward  repeated :  "  Yes,  you  went 
to  school  with  him."  He  told  me  the  secrets  of 
the  liquor  business,  the  misfortunes  which  had 
overtaken  his  boy  who  is  following  in  his  father's 
footsteps,  and  is  travelling  towards  delirium  tre- 
mens  at  even  a  faster  rate  than  this  robust,  con- 
vivial sailor.  I  tried  my  arts  on  August,  paint- 
ing in  wonderful  colours  the  glories  of  the  Mecca 
of  his  pilgrimage,  that  I  might  keep  him  from 
drinking  himself  to  death  with  beer  before  he  saw 
his  Fatherland.  And  I  succeeded ;  for  when  I 
saw  August  of  Hoboken  again,  he  was  drinking 
whiskey. 

Poles,  Bohemians  and  Slovaks  all  travelled  in 
the  second  cabin  ;  but  invariably  they  were  saloon- 
keepers and  displayed  the  demoralizing  tenden- 
cies of  their  business  to  their  full  extent. 

The  first  days  of  this  journey  were  made  mem- 
orable by  the  noisy  behaviour  of  two  Polish 
priests  who  were  constantly  mixing  whiskey  with 
beer,  and  who  rose  to  a  spiritual  ecstasy  which 
was  both  unpriestly  and  ungentlemanly.  Among 
the  many  priests  who  were  on  board,  but  few 
were  priests  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  the 
others  bringing  disgrace  upon  their  calling  and 


350  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

upon  their  Church.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
steerage  was  full  of  their  kindred  and  people  of 
their  faith,  not  a  priest  found  his  way  to  that  neg- 
lected quarter.  As  a  rule  they  were  busier  at 
the  bar  than  at  their  prayers,  a  fact  which  of  course 
must  not  be  charged  to  priests  as  a  class  ;  but 
the  sooner  the  Church  in  America  gets  rid  of 
most  of  its  foreign  born  priests,  especially  those 
from  Italy  and  the  Slavic  countries,  and  replaces 
them  by  Irish  or  Americans,  the  better  for  the 
Church  and  for  our  country. 

Dividing  the  passengers  according  to  their 
race,  most  of  them  were  Jews  from  Hungary  and 
Russia  ;  and  while  still  unmistakable  Jews,  they 
all  bore  marks  of  the  new  birth  which  had  taken 
place.  The  Russian  Jews  in  many  cases  were 
slovenly,  obtrusively  dressed  and  noisy  ;  their 
Yiddish  was  tainted  by  bad  English,  but  they 
were  frugal,  sober,  and  minded  their  own  busi- 
ness. 

One  of  the  group  which  I  had  gathered  around 
me  was  on  his  way  to  Palestine  where  his  parents 
now  live.  His  home  is  in  a  little  Illinois  town 
not  far  from  Chicago.  He  began  his  career  like 
many  of  his  kind,  by  peddling.  Now  he  owns  a 
department  store  and  allows  himself  the  luxury 
of  this  long  and  expensive  journey.  He  is 
leniently  orthodox  in  his  faith,  has  come  close 
enough  to  his  Gentile  neighbours  to  have  a 
glimpse  of  Christianity  at  its  best,  and  has  been 


IN  THE  SECOND  CABIN  351 

completely  permeated  by  the  American  spirit 
His  daughter  is  a  high  school  graduate,  plays 
the  piano,  gives  receptions,  dabbles  in  art,  takes 
part  in  the  Methodist  Church  fairs  and  on  occa- 
sions sings  in  the  church  choir. 

Such  a  close  touch  with  American  life  was  not 
vouchsafed  to  another  Russian  Jew  in  that  group. 
He  had  lived  in  New  York  and  had  also  gone 
through  the  long  tutelage  of  hard  bargaining  and 
hard  times.  He  too  was  going  to  Europe  ;  but 
he  went  to  buy  diamonds,  not  to  visit  his  rela- 
tives, and  neither  his  past  experience  nor  his 
vision  was  tinged  by  any  idealism.  He  was 
money  from  the  toes  up,  and  in  each  pocket  he 
carried  some  trinket,  from  fountain  pens  to 
diamond  pins,  which  could  be  bought  at  a  bar- 
gain. 

The  Hungarian  Jews  from  "  Little  Hungary  " 
had  progressed  most  rapidly  in  becoming  Amer- 
icanized. They  played  poker  from  morning 
until  night,  could  bluff  with  the  true  American 
"  sang  froid,"  and  swear  at  their  ill  luck ;  but 
that  they  had  kept  their  Jewish  shrewdness  was 
shown  by  their  leaving  the  game  when  the  tide 
of  luck  was  at  its  height.  When  they  did  not 
play  poker  they  talked  about  the  game  of  poli- 
tics as  played  in  New  York,  and  they  knew  its 
ins  and  outs  thoroughly.  The  higher  and  better 
note  struck  by  Roosevelt  and  Jerome  they  had 
grasped  in  but  a  vague  way ;  and  that  a  man 


352  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

could  be  honest  in  politics  was  strange  news  to 
them,  nor  did  they  believe  that  President  Roose- 
velt's activities  were  without  regard  to  his  own 
profit  in  the  game. 

"  Little  Hungary "  has  been  a  bad  political 
school  and  one  need  not  be  over  apprehensive  if 
he  regards  this  poor  political  tutelage  as  one  of 
the  greatest  problems  connected  with  the  influx 
of  foreigners  into  our  large  cities.  In  speech  and 
names  these  Hungarian  Jews  were  almost  com- 
pletely metamorphosed,  and  their  patriotism 
knew  no  bounds.  On  a  certain  day  one  of  them 
dug  out  of  the  depths  of  his  trunk  a  dozen  or 
more  American  flags,  with  which  he  wanted  us 
to  parade  up  and  down  the  ship  to  the  notes  of 
a  patriotic  air.  Upon  our  refusal  to  do  so  he 
grew  angry,  saying :  "  Nice  Americans  you  fas." 

In  contrast  to  the  steerage,  the  women  in  the 
second  cabin  appeared  to  have  changed  most, 
and  among  the  younger  women,  the  transforma- 
tion seemed  complete.  I  doubt  that  their  cloth- 
ing lacked  the  latest  fashionable  wrinkle ;  their 
physique  had  lost  its  robustness  and  they  had 
gained  in  self-possession.  I  have  noticed  a  very 
important  difference  in  the  behaviour  of  the 
second  class  coming  from  America  and  going 
there.  The  young  women  who  go  to  America 
are  more  or  less  molested  by  the  men,  their  lan- 
guage and  behaviour  one  to  the  other  is  not 
always  correct,  and  even  the  American  girls  have 


IN  THE  SECOND  CABIN  353 

lost  something  of  their  dignity  and  reserve  ;  but 
going  to  Europe  the  greatest  propriety  is  ob- 
served, and  although  the  young  people  have  a 
good  time  together,  the  young  women  know  how 
to  take  care  of  themselves,  the  men  know  better 
than  to  be  obtrusively  attentive,  and  if  they  try, 
they  receive  a  rebuff  from  which  they  do  not 
lightly  recover. 

The  second  cabin  goes  back  richer  not  only  in 
worldly  goods  but  in  conscious  manhood  and 
womanhood,  in  loftiness  of  ideals  and  above  all 
else,  pathetically  grateful  to  the  country  which 
gave  these  gifts. 

"  I  owe  everything  to  America,"  "  I  would  give 
everything  I  own  to  America,"  "  It  is  God's 
country,"  are  phrases  from  which  I  could  not 
disentangle  myself,  so  fervent  and  frequent  were 
they.  Some  of  these  people  have  still  a  richer 
inheritance  in  the  consciousness  of  having  had  a 
share  in  building  up  the  country  in  which  they 
have  lived.  Among  these  was  a  Jewish  gentle- 
man, Mr.  K.,  who  had  in  his  possession  letters 
from  Christian  people  in  his  county,  commending 
him  to  their  friends  abroad,  praising  his  public 
spirit,  his  generosity  towards  the  people  of  all 
faiths,  and  his  uprightness  in  business.  He  was 
proud  of  the  fact  that  he  had  voted  for  William 
McKinley  when  he  ran  for  prosecuting  attorney 
of  his  county,  and  that  he  had  voted  for  him 
every  time  he  ran  for  office.  It  is  true  that 


354  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

Mr.  K.  belonged  to  that  class  of  Jews  which  came 
from  Southern  Germany  and  which  is  the  best 
Jewish  product  that  Europe  has  sent  us ;  but 
his  is  not  an  isolated  case,  and  nearly  every 
county  in  America  has  produced  such  specimens 
coming  from  widely  different  portions  of  Europe. 

But  few  Italians  travel  in  the  cabin ;  there 
were  half  a  dozen  who  had  reached  that  degree 
of  prosperity,  and  they  came  from  the  South, 
had  been  engaged  in  the  cotton  business  and 
were  indulging  in  an  European  trip,  while  the 
product  of  their  plantations  was  daily  increasing 
in  price.  They  were  genteel,  and  quiet,  and  so 
well  dressed  and  well  groomed,  that  it  came  as  a 
surprise  to  most  of  the  passengers  to  find  that 
they  were  Italians,  and  that  they  had  risen  from 
the  "  Dago"  class.  On  them  America  has  per- 
formed the  miracle  of  transformation,  in  spite  of 
its  sordid  instincts  and  its  materialistic  atmos- 
phere ;  a  miracle  which  art-filled  Italy  could  not 
perform,  a  task  before  which  both  sculptor  and 
painter  are  powerless. 

The  Slavs  of  the  first  generation  who  were  in 
the  second  cabin,  were  nearly  all  saloon-keepers 
with  their  families;  and  although  the  change 
wrought  upon  them  was  great,  their  business  ob- 
truded, and  they  were  not  pleasant  companions. 
They  had  retained  the  reticence  of  their  race, 
spoke  only  when  spoken  to,  were  suspicious  of 
one's  approach,  but  warmed  to  one  after  a  while 


IN  THE  SECOND  CABIN  355 

Their  horizon  had  remained  bounded  by  the  min- 
ing camps  in  which  their  saloons  were  located ; 
even  those  from  Pittsburg,  and  they  were  not  a 
few,  had  not  looked  deep  into  our  American 
life. 

That  the  Pole  and  Slovak  will  be  hard  to  change, 
and  that  they  present  somewhat  tough  material, 
not  easily  assimilated,  often  forces  itself  upon  me  ; 
yet  when  I  see  their  children,  that  second  gener- 
ation, born  in  America,  I  can  see  no  difference 
between  the  Slav  and  the  German.  One  of  the 
most  beautiful  girls  on  board  of  ship,  one  of  the 
most  refined  in  her  attire  and  behaviour,  was  a 
Bohemian  girl  born  in  Chicago.  Although  she 
spoke  the  language  of  her  people,  she  spoke  Eng- 
lish better,  associated  with  the  American  girls 
on  board  of  ship,  and  it  would  have  taken  a  keen 
student  of  racial  stock  to  discover  her  Bohemian 
origin.  She  is  not  an  isolated  figure  nor  an  ex- 
ception. On  nearly  every  journey  I  have  taken 
I  have  found  her  type,  and  I  recall  with  especial 
pleasure  and  satisfaction  the  companionship  of 
two  Bohemian  school  teachers  from  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  both  of  them  born  in  Bohemia,  but 
having  grown  to  womanhood  on  the  shores  of 
Lake  Erie.  While  they  showed  in  their  faces 
the  Slavic  strain,  they  were  thoroughly  Ameri- 
canized and  must  have  been  a  blessing  to  the 
children  whom  they  taught. 

So  one's  apprehension  is  quieted  by  such  facts, 


356  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

which  are  by  no  means  rare.  Certain  crude  ele- 
ments may  survive,  even  in  the  second  generation, 
and  may  perhaps  enter  into  our  racial  existence, 
but  other  such  elements  have  come  to  us  from 
other  races,  and  have  not  spoiled  us  nor  yet  un- 
done us.  If  we  were  to  pick  out  on  board  of  ship 
the  most  disagreeable  people,  we  would  not  seek 
them  among  the  Slavs  nor  among  the  Italians, 
but  among  a  certain  class  of  German  and  Jewish 
Americans,  who  are  all  flesh  ;  blasphemous  in 
language,  intemperate  in  habits  and  who  are  in- 
tensely disliked  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic 
among  their  own  kinsmen.  This  is  not  intended 
to  reflect  upon  that  large  class  of  sober  and  in- 
telligent naturalized  Americans  one  meets ;  but  to 
emphasize  the  fact,  that  the  classes  of  immigrants 
most  desired  by  us,  compare  very  well  with  the 
best  element  in  our  polyglot  population.  Look- 
ing back  over  all  my  experiences,  I  am  justified 
in  saying  that  the  Slav,  the  Italian  and  the  Rus- 
sian Jew,  will  finally  compare  well  with  the  ear- 
lier output  of  foreign  born  Americans. 

The  last  night  before  the  landing,  an  enter- 
prising and  pleasure  loving  Jew  arranged  a  con- 
cert ;  and  although  the  participants  were  Jews, 
Bohemians,  Poles,  Germans  and  Russians,  it  was 
a  typical  American  affair,  was  as  decorous  as  a 
church  social,  and  nearly  as  dull.  These  children 
of  the  foreigners  sang  American  parlour  songs, 
recited  "  Over  the  hills  to  the  poorhouse,"  and 


IN  THE  SECOND  CABIN  357 

other  poems  which  are  intended  to  make  one 
happy  by  making  one  sad,  and  they  concluded 
by  singing  together  "  My  Country  'tis  of  Thee/1 
but  could  not  remember  the  words  beyond  the 
second  verse,  which  is  so  typical  of  our  own 
young  people. 

The  day  we  were  to  land  there  were  more 
American  flags  in  evidence  in  the  second  cabin 
than  in  any  other  quarter  of  the  ship.  The  over 
patriotic  Jew  had  his  dozen  flags  out,  swinging 
them  all  in  the  face  of  the  German  policemen  who 
lined  the  dock  at  Bremerhaven.  Every  button- 
hole bore  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  When  one  of 
the  thriftier  Jews  suggested  that  the  wearing  of 
the  flag  would  cost  them  money,  because  the  ho- 
tel keepers  gwould  charge  them  American  rates, 
another  replied :  "  It  is  worth  all  they  will  make 
me  pay,"  while  another  still  more  emphatically 
said  :  "  They  will  see  it  in  mine  face  that  I  am 
from  America;  let  it  cost  me  money." 

Swinging  the  Stars  and  Stripes  they  descended 
the  gang  plank ;  Slavs,  Italians  and  Jews,  all  of 
them  vociferous,  patriotic  Americans.  Wherever 
they  went  they  proclaimed  their  love  for  this 
country,  and  the  superiority  of  America  over  the 
whole  world. 

"  I  will  talk  nothing  but  American  ;  let  them 
learn  American,  the  best  language  in  the  world," 
said  one ;  and  much  to  the  chagrin  of  the  sensi- 
tive Europeans,  these  second  class  passengers 


358  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

went  blatantly  and  noisily  through  the  streets  of 
the  cities  of  Europe,  criticising  everything  they 
saw,  from  barber  shops  to  statuary.  One  of 
them  who  had  travelled  far,  who  had  seen  on 
that  journey  the  galleries  of  Paris,  Munich  and 
Dresden,  and  who  had  some  little  art  sense,  said  : 
"  I  tell  you  the  finest  piece  of  statuary  in  the 
whole  world  is  the  Goddess  of  Liberty  in  New 
York  Harbour ;  "  and  all  those  who  heard  said  : 
"  Amen." 

How  deep  the  American  ideals  have  taken  root 
among  them,  one  cannot  yet  discern ;  how  com- 
pletely the  second  generation  will  come  under 
their  sway,  how  much  of  the  old  world  spirit  will 
disappear  or  remain,  is  difficult  to  determine. 
This  is  no  time  to  be  blindly  optimistic  nor 
hopelessly  pessimistic;  it  is  a  time  for  facing 
the  dangers  and  not  fearing  them ;  for  this 
is  the  noontide  of  our  day  of  grace.  This 
is  the  time  to  bring  into  action  the  best 
there  Is  in  American  ideals ;  for  as  we  present 
ourselves  to  this  mass  of  men,  so  it  will  become. 
At  present  the  mass  is  still  a  lump  of  clay  in  the 
hands  of  the  potter ;  a  huge  lump  it  is  true,  but 
America  is  gigantic  and  this  is  not  the  least  of 
the  gigantic  tasks  left  for  her  mighty  sons  and 
to  perform. 


XXV 

AU  REVOIR 

My  Dear  Lady  of  the  First  Cabin  : 

I  have  followed  your  good  advice,  have 
told  my  story  as  I  told  it  to  you  ;  and  yours  be  the 
praise  and  the  blame.  You  interrupted  me  in 
the  telling,  by  saying  that  I  did  not  know  the 
first  cabin,  and  that  my  story  would  not  be 
complete  until  I  knew  that  part  of  the  ship  and 
that  portion  of  the  world  also. 

I  have  as  you  see  taken  passage  in  the  first 
cabin.  They  sold  me  the  ticket  as  readily  as  if 
it  were  for  the  steerage  and  did  not  ask  for  my 
pedigree,  only  for  my  check.  Fifty  dollars  more 
gave  me  the  privilege  of  sitting  where  you  sat 
(which  was  at  one  time  the  "  seat  of  the  scorn- 
ful"), of  looking  proudly  upon  the  second  cabin, 
and  pityingly  upon  the  steerage  below. 

It  is  a  delightful  sensation  this ;  of  being  sum- 
moned to  your  meals  by  the  notes  of  a  bugle 
rather  than  by  the  jangle  of  a  shrill  bell ;  of  look- 
ing over  half  a  yard  of  menu,  and  ordering  what 
you  want,  and  whom  you  want,  just  as  you 
please,  rather  than  being  ordered  about  as  some 
one  else  pleases. 

The  first  day  out  I  found  the  first  cabin  as 
359 


360  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

quiet  as  the  steerage ;  only  more  dignified.  The 
passengers  were  walking  on  tiptoe  ;  many  of 
them  trying  to  adjust  themselves  to  these  laby- 
rinthine luxuries  ;  while  the  distinguished  rustle 
of  silken  petticoats  relieved  the  pressure  of  the 
atmosphere,  which  naturally  was  tense  from  the 
excitement  of  the  beginning  of  a  journey.  Critic- 
ally, almost  with  hostility,  each  passenger  meas- 
ured the  other ;  the  tables  were  buried  beneath 
the  loads  of  flowers  and  floral  designs  which 
were  past  the  fading,  and  in  the  first  melancholy 
stages  of  decay  ;  so  that  all  of  it  reminded  me  of 
a  palatial  home,  to  which  the  mourners  have 
just  returned  from  a  rich  uncle's  funeral. 

As  yet,  no  one  had  spoken  to  me,  although  I 
had  volunteered  a  wise  remark  about  the  weather 
to  one  passenger,  and  the  gentleman  addressed 
recoiled  as  if  I  had  struck  him  with  a  sledge 
hammer.  I  learned  afterwards  that  he  occupied 
a  thousand  dollar  suite  of  rooms  and  that  his 
name  was  Kalbsfoos  or  something  like  it.  In 
choosing  his  seat  at  the  table,  I  heard  him  re- 
mark to  the  head  steward  that  he  did  not  want 
to  sit  "  near  Jews,"  nor  any  "  second  class  look- 
ing crowd  "  ;  but  that  was  a  difficult  task  to  ac- 
complish. 

More  than  a  third  of  the  passengers  were  Jews, 
and  more  than  two-thirds  were  people  whose 
names  and  bearing  betrayed  the  fact  that  they 
were  either  the  children  of  immigrants,  or  immi- 


AU  REVOIR  361 

grants  themselves,  who  too  were  returning  to 
the  Old  World  because  they  had  succeeded.  In 
the  Vs.  Mr.  Vanderbilt's  name  headed  the  list, 
but  the  name  closest  to  his  was  Vogelstein ; 
while  between  such  American  or  English  names 
as  Wallace  and  Wallingford,  were  a  dozen 
Woolfs  and  Wumelbachers,  Weises  and  Wiesels. 
I  need  not  tell  you  of  the  multitude  of  the  Rosen- 
bergs and  Rosenthals  there  were  in  our  cabin. 
Mr.  Funkelstein  and  Mr.  Jaborsky  were  my  room- 
mates. First  cabin  after  all  is  only  steerage 
twice  removed,  and  beneath  its  tinsel  and 
varnish,  it  is  the  same  piece  of  world  as  that  be- 
low me ;  which  you  pity,  and  which  you  dread. 

The  staple  conversation  to-day  is  the  size  of 
the  pool — which  has  reached  the  thousand  dollar 
mark,  and  the  fact  that  a  certain  actor  lost  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  at  poker  the  night  before.  In 
the  second  cabin  the  pool  was  smaller,  the  limit 
in  poker  ten  cents ;  while  in  the  steerage  they 
lived,  unconscious  of  the  fact  that  pools  and 
poker  are  necessary  accompaniments  of  an 
ocean  voyage. 

It  is  a  stratified  society  in  which  I  find  myself 
up  here,  and  the  lines  are  marked — dollar  marked. 
The  stewards  instinctively  know  the  size  of  our 
bank  accounts  by  our  wardrobes.  Around  the 
captain's  table  are  gathered  the  stars  in  the 
financial  firmament ;  those  whom  nobody  knows, 
who  travel  without  retinue  are  at  the  remote 


362  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

edges  of  the  dining  room,  far  away  from  the  lime 
light. 

In  the  steerage,  everybody  "  gets  his  grub  "  in 
the  same  way,  in  the  same  tin  pans — "  first  come 
first  served ";  and  all  of  us  are  kicked  in  the 
same  unceremonious  way  by  the  ship's  crew. 

The  first  cabin  and  the  society  it  represents 
are  not  all  finished  products.  There  are  many 
of  those  who  eat,  even  at  the  captain's  table,  who 
are  still  in  blessed  ignorance  of  the  fact,  that 
knives  were  not  made  for  the  eating  of  blueberry 
pie  ;  and  who  also  do  not  know  what  use  to  make 
of  the  tiny  bowls  of  water  in  which  rose  leaves 
float,  when  they  are  placed  before  them. 

Then  there  are  the  maidens  who  walk  about 
with  mannish  tread,  talking  loudly  and  violently 
through  their  noses ;  who  assault  the  piano 
furiously  with  the  notes  of  rag-time  marches ; 
and  who  waft  upon  the  air  perfumes  which  offend 
one's  olfactory  nerves. 

Yet  beside  them,  and  in  strong  contrast  to 
them  are  those  superb  men  and  women,  the 
flower  of  American  civilization,  whose  like  has 
never  been  created  anywhere  else  in  the  world. 

No,  what  I  have  learned  in  the  first  cabin  has 
not  changed  my  vision  in  the  least ;  for  the  world 
it  represents  is  not  closed  to  me  ;  and  I  reckoned 
with  it  in  my  story.  You  know  enough  about 
me  to  realize  that  I  harbour  no  class  or  race 
prejudices,  and  that  I  try  to  "play  fair.1' 


AU  REVOIR  363 

The  people  of  the  steerage  are  in  a  large 
measure  what  I  told  you  they  are — primitive, 
uncultured,  untutored  people  ;  with  all  their  vir- 
tues and  vices  in  the  making.  They  are  the  best 
material  with  which  to  build  a  nation  materially ; 
they  are  good  stock  to  be  used  in  replenishing 
physical  depletion  ;  and  capable  of  taking  on  the 
highest  intellectual  and  spiritual  culture.  They 
are  a  serious  problem  in  every  respect ;  whether 
you  shut  the  gates  of  Ellis  Island  to-day  or  to- 
morrow, those  that  are  here  are  an  equally  serious 
problem. 

One  thing  the  journey  in  the  first  cabin  has 
done  for  me  ;  it  has  made  me  grateful  for  my 
journeys  in  the  steerage ;  grateful  that  I  could 
stand  among  those  tangling  threads  out  of  which 
our  national  life  is  being  woven,  and  see  the  woof 
and  the  warp,  and  know  that  the  woof  is  good.  I 
am  conscious  of  the  fact  that  it  will  take  strong 
sound  warp  to  hold  it  together,  to  fill  out  our 
pattern  and  complete  our  plan.  Oh,  my  dear 
lady  1  What  a  great  country  in  the  making  this 
is  1  And  how  close  you  and  I  are  to  the 
making ! 

Here  are  we,  living  at  a  time  in  which  the 
greatest  phenomenon  of  history  is  taking  place. 
Future  generations  will  wonder  at  the  process 
and  will  say  :  "A  new  gigantic  race  was  being 
born  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  ;  a  race 
born  to  build  or  to  destroy,  to  cry  to  the  world, 


364  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

*  Ground  Arms/  or  cast  it  into  the  hell  of  war  ;  a 
race  in  which  are  welded  all  kindreds  of  the 
people  of  the  earth,  or  a  race  which  will  destroy 
itself  by  mutual  hate." 

My  lady,  you  and  I  are  here  to  work  at  a  task 
which  will  outstrip  all  the  wonders  of  the  world, 
and  we  cannot  do  it  in  our  own  strength  ;  we 
need  to  call  to  each  other,  as  we  bend  to  our 
task,  the  greeting  which  the  Slovaks  sent  after 
you  when  you  left  the  ship  : 

"Z'Boghem,  Z'Boghem," 
"  The  Lord  be  with  thee." 


APPENDIX 
IMMIGRATION  STATISTICS 

THE  author  has  refrained  from  using  statistics 
in  his  book,  not  because  he  has  any  objection  to 
figures ;  but  because  the  statistics  of  immigration 
(even  those  prepared  by  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment) are  misleading. 

Professor  Walter  F.  Willcox,  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Basal  Statistics,  appointed  by  the 
National  Civic  Federation,  calls  attention  to  this 
fact  in  his  report,  and  gives  the  following  reasons 
for  their  unreliability. 

The  meaning  of  any  statistics  depends  largely  upon  the 
meaning  of  the  unit  in  which  the  statistics  are  expressed. 
It  is  a  common  but  fallacious  assumption  that  a  word  used 
as  the  name  of  a  statistical  unit  has  precisely  the  same 
meaning  that  it  has  when  used  in  popular  speech.  In  the 
present  case  the  word  "  immigrant  "  has  had  and  to  some 
degree  still  has  different  meanings,  which  maybe  called  re- 
spectively the  popular  or  theoretical  meaning  and  the  ad- 
ministrative or  statistical  meaning,  and  these  two  should  be 
carefully  distinguished. 

In  the  popular  or  theoretical  sense  an  immigrant  is  a 
person  of  foreign  birth  who  is  crossing  the  country's  bound- 
ary and  entering  the  United  States  with  intent  to  remain 
and  become  an  addition  to  the  population  of  the  country. 
In  this  sense  of  the  word  an  alien  arrival  is  an  immigrant 
whether  he  comes  by  water  or  by  land,  in  the  steerage  or 

365 


366  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

in  the  cabin,  from  contiguous  or  non-contiguous  territory, 
and  whether  he  pays  or  does  not  pay  the  head  tax.  The 
essential  element  is  an  addition  to  the  population  of  the 
country  as  a  result  of  travel  and  the  word  thus  covers  all 
additions  to  the  population  otherwise  than  by  birth.  A 
person  cannot  be  an  immigrant  to  the  United  States  more 
than  once  any  more  than  a  person  can  be  born  more  than 
once.  It  is  a  characteristic  of  this  meaning  that  it  does 
not  alter. 

The  word  immigrant  in  its  administrative  or  statistical 
sense  is  not  defined  in  the  Reports  of  the  Commissioner- 
General  of  Immigration,  but  from  that  source  and  from  the 
instructions  and  other  circulars  issued  by  the  Bureau  the 
following  statements  regarding  its  meaning  have  been 
drawn  : 

1 .  The  administrative  or  statistical  meaning  of  immi- 
grant is  not  fixed  by  statute  law  but  is  determined  by  the 
definitions  or  explanations  of  the  Bureau  of  Immigration 
and  those  are  dependent  upon  and  vary  with  the  law  and 
administrative  decisions. 

2.  In  the  latest  circular  of  the  Bureau  immigrants  are 
defined  as  "arriving  aliens  whose  last  permanent  residence 
was  in  a  country  other  than  the  United  States  who  intend 
to  reside  in  the  United  States."     This  definition  seems  to 
agree  closely  with  the  popular  or  theoretical  one. 

3.  But  the  foregoing  definition  is  modified  by  a  subse- 
quent paragraph  of  the  same  circular  which  excludes  from 
the  immigrant  class  "  citizens  of  British  North  America  and 
Mexico  coming  direct  therefrom  by  sea  or  rail."     So  the 
official  definition  is  substantially  this :     An  alien  neither  a 
resident  of  the  United  States  nor  a  citizen  of  British  North 
America,  Cuba  or  Mexico,  who  arrives  in  the  United  States 
intending  to  reside  there. 


APPENDIX  367 

4.  The  only  important  difference  between  these  two  defi- 
nitions  is   that  the  statistical  definition  excludes,   as  the 
popular   definition    does    not,    citizens  of  British   North 
America,  Cuba  and  Mexico.     As  the  natives  of  Canada 
and  Mexico  living  in  the  United  States  in  1900  were  14.2 
per  cent,  of  the  natives  of  all  other  foreign  countries,  it 
seems  likely  that  the  figures  of  immigration  for  the  year 
1905-06  should  be  increased  about  14.2  per  cent,  in  order 
to  get  an  approximate  estimate  of  the  total  immigration 
into  the  country  during  the  year  just  ended. 

5.  Perhaps  the  most  important  difference  between  the 
popular  or  theoretical  and  the  statistical  definition  of  im- 
migrant is  that  the  former  is  unchanging  and  the  latter  has 
been  modified  several  times  by  changes  of  law  or  by  modi- 
fications of  administrative  interpretation. 

6.  Until  January  i,  1906,  an  alien  arrival  was  counted 
as  an  immigrant  each  time  he  entered  the  country,  but 
since  that  date  an  alien  who  has  acquired  a  residence  in 
the  United  States  and  is  returning  from  a  visit  abroad  is 
not  classed  as  an  immigrant.     This  administrative  change 
has  brought  the  statistical  and  the  popular  meanings  of  im- 
migrant into  closer  agreement,  but  in  so  doing  has  reduced 
the  apparent  number  of  immigrants  more  than  ten  per  cent, 
and  has  made  it  difficult  to  compare  the  earlier  and  the 
later  statistics. 

7.  Until  January  i,  1903,  an  alien  arriving  in  the  first 
or  second   cabin  was   not  classed  as  an  immigrant,  but 
rather   under   the  head  of  other  alien  passengers.     This 
change  likewise  brought  the  two  meanings  of  immigrant 
into    closer    agreement,    but    also   made    it    difficult   to 
compare   the   figures  before   and   after  that  date.     By  a 
mere  change  of  administrative  definition  the  reported  num- 
ber of  immigrants  was  increased  nearly  twelve  per  cent. 


368  ON   The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

8.  Until  the  same  date  an  alien  arrival  in  transit  to 
some  other  country  was  deemed  an  immigrant,  but  since 
that  date  such  persons  have  been  classed  as  non-immigrant 
aliens.     This  change  also  makes  the  figures  before  1903 
not  strictly  comparable  with  later  ones.     About  three  per 
cent,  of  those  who  were  formerly  classed  as  aliens  have 
been  excluded  since  1903.     The  alteration  has  brought 
the  two  definitions  closer  together,  but  in  so  doing  has  en- 
tailed administrative  difficulties  which  lead  the  bureau  to 
favour  a  return  to  the  former  system  or  at  least  to  favour 
collecting  the  head  tax  from  such  aliens  in  transit. 

9.  An  immigrant  in  the  statistical  sense  is  a  person 
liable  for  and  paying  the  head  tax.     But  to  this  there  are 
two  slight  exceptions.     Deserting  alien  seamen  not  appre- 
hended are  liable  for  the  head  tax  which  is  paid  by  the 
company  from  which  they  desert,  but  such  cases  are  not 
included  in  the  statistics.     Citizens  of  British  North  Amer- 
ica, Cuba  and  Mexico  coming  from  other  ports  than  those 
of  their  own  country  are  reported  as  immigrants,  but  do 
not  pay  the  head  tax.     Obviously  both  are  minor  excep- 
tions hardly  affecting  the  rule.     In  the  popular  or  theoret- 
ical meaning  of  immigrant  this  head  tax  is  not  an  ele- 
ment. 

10.  Probably  other  changes  of  definition  have  occurred 
of  recent  years.     No  attempt  has  been  made  to  exhaust 
the  list.     The  general  tendency  of  the  changes  has  clearly 
been  towards  a  closer  agreement  of  the  popular  and  the 
statistical  meanings.     But  they  have  probably  tended  to 
make  the  increase  of  immigration  indicated  by  the  figures 
greater  than  the  actual  increase,  and  to  that  degree  to 
make  the  figures  misleading.     If  the  Government  Bureau 
of  Immigration  and  Naturalization  could  make  a  carefully 
studied  estimate  of  the  extent  to  which  such  changes  in 


APPENDIX 


369 


the  official  reports  really  modify  the  apparent  meaning  of 
the  published  figures,  it  would  render  a  valuable  service. 

n.  A  committee  like  the  present  can  hardly  make 
such  an  estimate  or  go  further  than  to  point  out  that  for 
the  reasons  indicated  the  official  statistics  of  immigration 
are  likely  to  be  seriously  misinterpreted  and  are  con- 
stantly misinterpreted  by  the  public. 

The  official  statistics  of  immigration  being  subject  to  all 
the  qualifications  indicated  and  reflecting  so  imperfectly 
the  amount  of  immigration  as  ordinarily  or  popularly  con- 
ceived the  question  at  once  arises,  Can  any  substitute  or 
any  alternative  be  proposed  ?  What  the  public  is  mainly  in- 
terested in,  I  think,  and  what  it  commonly  but  erroneously 
believes  is  indicated  by  the  official  figures  of  immigration, 
is  the  net  addition  to  the  population  year  by  year  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  currents  of  travel  between  the  United  States 
and  other  countries. 

Alternative  figures  for  the  last  eight  years,  a  period 
which  closely  coincides  with  the  last  great  wave  of  immi- 
gration now  at  or  near  its  crest,  may  be  had  by  comparing 
the  total  arrivals  and  departures  in  the  effort  to  get  the  net 
gain.  The  results  appear  in  the  following  table : 


Per  Cent. 

That  Net 

Total 

Total 

Arrivals 

Increase 

Passen- 

Passen- 

Total 

Minus 

Makes 

gers 

gers 

Immi- 

De- 

of Immi- 

Fiscal Year  Arrivals 

Departed 

gration 

parture 

gration 

1898                343,963 

225411 

229,299 

118,552 

si.8 

1899 
1900 

429,796 
594,478 

256,008 
293,404 

3".7I5 
448,572 

173.788 
301,074 

55.8 

67.0 

1901 
1902 

675,025 
820,893 

306,724 
326,760 

487,918 
648,743 

368,304 
494,  '33 

ft 

1903 
1904 

1,025,834 
988,688 

375.26i 
508,204 

857,046 
812,870 

650.573 
480,484 

75-9 
59-3 

1905              1,234,615 

536,151 

1,026,499 

698,464 

68.1 

1898-1905 


4,822,662 


68.1 


370  ON  The  TRAIL  of  The  IMMIGRANT 

The  figures  indicate  that  the  net  increase  of  population 
by  immigration  during  the  last  eight  years  has  been  slightly 
more  than  two-thirds  of  the  reported  immigration.  But 
these  figures  of  net  increase  should  be  increased  by  an  esti- 
mate of  the  arrivals  by  land  from  Canada  and  Mexico. 
As  the  Canadians  and  Mexicans  by  birth  residing  in  the 
United  States  in  1900  were  14.2  per  cent,  of  all  residents 
born  in  other  foreign  countries,  this  would  indicate  an 
influx  of  466,000  Canadians  and  Mexicans,  a  figure  prob- 
ably in  excess  of  the  truth  since  the  currents  have  probably- 
been  setting  Canada  ward  of  recent  years.  I  estimate, 
therefore,  that  the  net  increase  from  immigration  1898- 
1905  has  been  about  3,750,000  instead  of  4,820,000  as 
might  be  inferred  from  the  reports  of  the  bureau  of  immi- 
gration. The  actual  increase  would  then  be  about  seventy- 
eight  per  cent,  of  the  apparent  increase. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America. 


INDEX 


"AMERICANA,"    by    Dr.     Lam- 

precht,  quoted,  321 
Americanizing  the  stranger,  291 
Americans,  poor  example  set  by, 

119 
Americans  or  foreigners,  in  the 

slums,  316 
Amish,  the,  96 
Anti-Semitic  riots,  53 
Ashkenazim,  the,  146 
Assimilation,  miracle  of,  291 
Atheism  of  Hungarians,  249 
Austro-Hungarian  Jews,  148 

BIALISTOK,  Jews  from,  61,  325 
Bohemian  movement,  beginning 

of,  23 
Bohemian  immigrant,  distribution 

of,  225  ;  characteristics  of,  227  ; 

irreligion  of,  228 ;  socialism  of, 

234 ;  both  best  and  worst,  235 
Bohemian   school   teachers   from 

Cleveland,  355 
Bulgarians,  the,  26,  180 

CASTLE  GARDEN  days,  78 
Catholic,  see  also  Roman  Catholic 
Catholic  Church,  foreign  priests 
a  hindrance  to,  323;  and  the 
Bohemians,  229;  and  the  Ital- 
ian, 278 

Catholic  Hungarians,  247 
Centre  of  Mill  Horror,  222 
Christian  Church  and  Jews,  164 
Church,  political  power  of,  322 
Citizenship  papers  for  ten  dollars, 

331 

Commissioner    Watchorn,     Ellis 
Island,  8 1 


Commissioner  Williams,    Ellis 

Island,  8 1 
Competition  the  life  of  prejudice, 

3°9- 
Count  Aponyi,  Hungary,  quoted, 

3i8 

Crainers,  the,  212 

Criminal  element  among  immi- 
grants, 75 

Criminals,  Italian,  2*5,  273 

Croatians,  the,  26,  1 80,  212 

Czechs,  the,  180 

DALMATIANS,  the,  26,  181 
Degeneration  due  to  influx  of  for- 
eigner, not  evident,  304 
Deported  from  Ellis  Island,  65, 

66,  68,  72,  82,  92 
Detention  room,  in  the,  68 
Diocletian,   palace   of,  a    Slavic 
town,  18 

ECONOMIC  problem  of  new  Amer- 
ican, 309 

Economic  value  of  immigrant,  318 

Educational  Alliance,  the,  161, 
163 

Ellis  Island  ahead,  48 ;  examina- 
tion at,  65 ;  conditions  at,  79 ; 
new  conditions  at,  86 

Emigrant,  passports  for,  31 ;  treat- 
ment of,  at  port  of  embarka- 
tion, 32;  medical  examination 
of,  35  ;  examination  of,  at  home, 

Endeavour  Societies,  Jewish,  151 
Ethical  Culture  Society,  the,  152 
Excluding  the  weak  and  helpless, 
73 


371 


372 


INDEX 


FAMILIES  divided,  by  inspectors, 

65 

Finns,  the,  27 
Free  thinkers,  106 
First  Cabin  vs.  Steerage,  14 

GENTLEMEN    in    homespun    vs. 

beasts  in  broadcloth,  46 
George,    Joseph    J.,    Worcester, 
Mass.,  and  Syrian  children,  83 
Geringer,    Mr.,    editor    Svornost, 

228,  229 

Ghetto,  the  Russian,  136;  of  New 
York,  154;  vs.  the  West  Side, 
305  ;  vs.  upper  Broadway,  306 
German  aristocracy,  the  real,  98 
German  Evangelical  Church,  108 
German  immigrants,  the  first,  94 ; 
characteristics  of,  97  ;  socialism 
of,  98;  intellectual  life  of,  100; 
social  life  of,  101 ;  political  in- 
fluence  of,    103 ;    influence   of 
Church  upon,  105  ;  materialism 
of,  107 ;  influence  of,  on  relig- 
ious life,  108 
German  Jews,  148 
German  Methodists,  108 
Great  Russian,  the,  181 
Greek  Catholic  Church,  the,  204 
Greek  Catholic  immigrants,  322 
Greek  Church  and  the  Slav,  204 
Greek  immigrant,  the,  282 ;  char- 
acteristics of,  285,  288 ;  and  the 
Church,  287 

Greek  Orthodox  immigrants,  322 
Greek  play  at  Hull  House,  291 

HALL,  PRESCOTT  F.,  quoted,  296 
Hamburg,  treatment  of  emigrant, 

34 
Hartford,  Conn.,  Italian  district, 

266 ;  gathering  of  Jews  in,  298 
Hearst  influence  in  the  Ghetto, 

1 68 

Hertzl,  Theodore,  298 
Hester  Street  vs.  the  West  Side, 

3°5 
Hoar,  Geo.  F.,  Senator,  quoted,  82 


Hoboken  saloon-keeper,  the,  348 
Hungarian,  see  also  Magyar 
Hungarian  Catholic,  the,  247 
Hungarian  Greek  Catholic,  247 
Hungarian  gypsies,  244 
Hungarian  immigrant,  character- 
istics of,  250  ;  socialism  of,  244  ; 
hostility  to  religion,  249 
Hungarian  Jews  in  second  cabin, 

35 * 

Hungarian  Protestant,  the,  248 
"Hunkies,"  198;   looking  for 

work,  213;   in   steel  mills  in 

Penn.,   220;  with  the   Illinois 

Steel  Co.,  222 
Huss,  John,  succeeded  by  George 

Washington,  234 

ILLYRIAN,  the,  180 
Imagination  and  reality,  74 
Immigrant  of  to-day,  character- 
istics  of,   29;   expectations  of, 
62;  treatment  of,  at  Ellis  Island, 
79;   types  of,  91;  not  content 
with  old  conditions,  311 ;  prob- 
lem of,  not  an  economic  one, 
314;  economic  value  of,  318; 
economic    effect    on   his  own 
country,    318;    religious   ideas 
of,  322;  amenable  to  religious 
influence,  326 ;  in  politics,  330; 
patriotism  of,  332 
Immigrant  societies,  64 
Immigration,  quality  of,  improv- 
ing, 91 ;  where  the  danger  lies, 
92 

Immigration  laws,  effect  on  steam 
ship  companies,  35 ;  amend- 
ment to,  procured  by  Senator 
Hoar,  85  ;  as  to  public  charge, 
92 

Immigration  Congress,  N.  Y.,  315 
Infidelity  of  Bohemians,  228 
Ingersoll,   Robert,   influence    of, 

228,  230 

Inspectors  at  Ellis  Island,  80 
Italian   movement,  beginning  of 
19 


INDEX 


373 


Italian,  the,  at  home,  28,  252; 
characteristics  of,  253;  affected 
by  other  races,  253;  lawless- 
ness of,  255 ;  criminals,  255  ; 
distrust  of  the  Church,  258, 
260 

Italian  immigrant,  the,  262 ;  char- 
acteristics of,  262;  distribution 
of,  264,  269;  in  business,  268; 
competitor  of  the  Jew,  27 1 ; 
and  the  school,  276;  and  the 
Church,  277 

Italians  returning  in  the  second 
cabin,  354 

JAMESTOWN,  N.  Y.,  Swedish  col- 
ony of,  117,  122 

Jewish  movement,  beginning  of, 
21 

Jewish  world,  the  real,  133 

Jews  the,  in  the  old  world,  126; 
homelessness  of,  1 26 ;  distribu- 
tion of,  127  ;  characteristics  of, 
127  ;  in  Russia,  134;  socialism 
of,  140;  25Oth  anniversary  of 
landing  in  America,  143;  char- 
ter granted  to,  in  1655,  144  ; 
four  groups  of,  147  ;  spiritual 
movements  among,  151;  and 
the  Christian  churches,  164, 
329;  missions  in  the  Ghetto, 
166;  in  politics,  167;  second 
generation  of,  171 ;  mutual  dis- 
trust of,  172;  racial  fealty  of, 
303;  relation  to  Christianity, 
329 

Judaism,  crisis  of,  in  America, 
302. 

KISHINEFF,  Jews  from,  61,  325 

LABOUR  market,  changes  in,  310 
Labour  unions  or  manufacturers' 

associations,  310 
Lady  of  the  First  Cabin,  The,  9, 

359 
Lamprecht,  Prof.  K.,  quoted,  101, 

321 


Lindsburgh,  Kansas,  model  Swe- 
dish town,  122 

Lithuanians,  the,  27 

Little  Hungary,  238,  305;  as  a 
political  school,  352 

Little  Russian,  the,  182 

Lodge,  Henry  Cabot,  Senator,  83 

Lombroso,  Dr.,  on  criminology, 

2<6 

Lutheran    church,   influence    of, 

I05 

Lutheran  church  and  the  Swedes, 
118 

MAGYAR,  see  also  Hungarian 
Magyar,  the,  27 ;  Jews,  149 ;  in 
Austro- Hungary,  241;  in  Lit- 
tle Hungary,  242;  political 
tendencies  of,  244 ;  not  Slavs, 
241 

Man  at  the  Gate,  the,  78 
Marxian  Socialism,  98,  234 
Massarik,  Professor,  quoted,  230 
Materialism  of  Germans,  107 ;  of 

Bohemians,  230 
Mennonites,  the,  94 
Milwaukee,    the    most    German 

city,  100 

Minneapolis,  115,  122 
Minnesota,  Swedes  unpopular  in, 

117 
Money  sent  home  by  immigrant, 

an  economic  gain,  320 
Montefiore,  Sir  Moses,  131 
Montenegrins,  the,  26,  180 
Moravians,  the,  96 

NATIONAL  Immigrant  Societies, 

64 

Neglect,  effect  of,  124 
Nelson,  Knute,  117 
New  Britain,  Conn.,  Polish  town, 

212 

New  Greece,  Chicago,  288 
New  Prague,  typical   Bohemian 

town,  231 
New  Ulm,  a  city  without  a  church, 

98 


374 


INDEX 


ODESSA,  Jews  from,  61 

PASTORIUS,  FRANCIS  DANIEL,  96 
Paupers  and  criminals,  a  million 

a  year  ?  72 

Pole,  the,  vs.  the  Slovak,  210 
Polish  movement,  beginning  of, 

24 
Polish  town,  New  Britain,  Conn., 

211 

Political  immigrants,  97 
Political  tutelage  of  immigrants, 

33° 

Pope  Pius  X,  259 
President     Roosevelt    and    Ellis 

Island,  81 

Prohibitionists,  the  first,  96 
Protecting  American  labour,  309 
Protestant     influence     on    Bohe- 
mians, 231;  Hungarians,  248; 
Church  and  the  Italians,  281 
Public  charge,  a,  68 

RABBINISM,  power  of,  146 

Rabbis  of  the  Ghetto,  162 

Race  movement  of  Eastern  Eu- 
rope, 1 6 

Races,  difficulty  of  distinguishing 
between,  294 

Racial  characteristics,  changes  in, 
294 

Racial  fealty  of  Jews,  303 

Religions,  national,  322 

Religious  atmosphere  of  America, 
321 

Religious  ideas  of  immigrants, 
322 

Republicans,  Democrats  and 
"  Inepenny,"  345 

Restriction  Immigration  League, 
296 

Returned  immigrant,  influence  at 
home,  339 

Roman  displaced  by  Slav,  18 

Roman  Catholic,  see  also  Catholic 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  influ- 
ence on  Germans,  105 ;  and 
the  Slav,  204 


Roman  Catholic  immigrants,  322 

Roosevelt,  President,  and  Ellis 
Island,  8 1 ;  letter  to,  of  Senator 
Hoar,  84 

Russian  Jews,  150;  character- 
istics of,  173 

Russian  refugees,  57 


SALOON-KEEPERS  in  second  cabin, 

349 

Scandinavian    immigrant,    the, 
112;    characteristics    of,    113; 
distribution    of,    114;    second 
generation  of,  113;  considered 
unreliable,  117;  town  of  Linds- 
burgh,  Kansas,  122 
Schurz,  Carl,  97 
Schwenkfelders,  the,  96 
Secret  societies  of  Italy,  256 
Sephardic  Congregations,  145 
Servant  girl,  as  she  returns,  337 
Servians,  the,  26,  180,  212 
Shylock  vs.  Daniel  Deronda,  130 
Silverman,  Dr.  Joseph,  143 
Slav   at   home,  the,  20 ;  distribu- 
tion of,  179  ;  characteristics  of, 
1 80,  183;   blood   revenge  still 
practiced,    185;    treatment    of 
women,    187;   love  of   music, 
189;  religious  feeling  of,  195 
Slavic   immigrant,  the,  198 ;  the 
Slovak,    198;   the    Pole,    198, 
210 ;  the  Bohemian,  225 
Slavic  literature,  194 
Slovak  movement,  the,  25 
Slovak,   the,    180,    191,    200;  in 
politics,   206 ;    entertainments, 
207  ;  as  a  type,  301 
Slovenes,  the,  26,  181 
Slums   in  the,  Americans  or  for- 
eigners, 316 

Socialism    of    Germans,   98;    of 
Jews,  140  ;  of  Bohemians,  234  ; 
of  Italians,  257 
Social  nose  or  social  heart,  12 
Social  Democracy,  and  the  Mag- 
yars, 243 


INDEX 


375 


Social  Democrats  in  the  Ghetto, 
167 

Social  Labour  Jews,  169 

South  Chicago,  steel  mills  of,  222 

Spanish  Jews,  147 

Steamship  companies,  responsi- 
bility of,  76 

Steerage,  the,  from  the  quarter- 
deck, 10 ;  conditions  in,  35 ; 
vs.  second  cabin,  36 ;  should 
be  abolished,  37  ;  accommoda- 
tions, English  best,  38 ;  vs.  the 
slum,  41 ;  songs,  42  ;  comrade- 
ship of,  43,  50 ;  amusements  of, 
51  ;  question  of,  53;  shadows 
of  the  past,  53 ;  polyglot  sermon 
in,  62  ;  and  anarchy,  77 ;  fel- 
lowship of,  on  return  voyage, 
334 ;  self-assertive  on  return, 

335 
"Stomach  Jews  "  vs.  "  S  o  u  1 

Jews,"  328 

Stratified  society  in  first  cabin,  362 
Strikes  by  foreigners,  311 
Svornosf,  Bohemian  infidel  paper, 

228,  232 
Swedes,  set  Scandinavians 


Syrian  children,  story  of,  82 
Syrians,  the,  28 

TRAGEDY  of  the  deported,  65, 66, 

68-72,  82,  92 

Tucker,  President,  quoted,  326 
Tunkers,  the,  96 
Turner  Societies,  106,  230 

UNIVERSITY  SETTLEMENT,  the, 
164 

VANDERBILT  vs.  VOGKLSTEIN, 
361 

WATCHORN,  ROBERT,  Commis- 
sioner, Ellis  Island,  81 ;  secures 
reforms,  86 

Wends,  the,  180 

West  Side  vs.  Ghetto,  14 

Williams,  William,  Commissioner 
at  Ellis  Island,  81 

YIDDISH,  the,  156 

ZIONISTIC  movement,  141 
Zionist  leader,  Theodore  Hertzl, 
298 


09840 

GENERAL  UBBARY-U.C.  BERKELEY 


